The Changing ASIC Design Landscape

Phoenix, Arizona September 14, 2010 - The ASIC Design Start landscape has changed a lot in the last four years. Increasing design costs, rising design complexity, lengthening design cycle times, and the recent global economic meltdown have all had an impact, especially on the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) market. Semico Research Corp has published its analysis of these issues in a new report titled ASIC Design Starts: Recovery in the Markets.

This report provides a picture of the Design Starts market:
--by ASIC product type
--by end-use market category
--by process geometry
--by gate count, and
--by region.

This report tracks both design starts and unit shipments of 9 different types of ASICs, including:
--Analog
--Mixed Signal
--Gate Array
--Advanced Performance Multicore SoCs
--Value Multicore SoCs
--Basic SoCs
--PLDs
--FPGAs
--Structured ASICs

The market category data is derived from an analysis of 71 end applications, as covered in the sister report ASIC Design Starts by Key End Market Applications. These categories include:
--Computing
--Consumer
--Communications (Wired and Wireless)
--Transportation
--Industrial

Some of the data discussed in 89 pages with 60 tables and 65 graphs includes:
--Total ASIC design starts fell 5.2% in 2009. Semico is forecasting a return to growth with an increase of 9.1% in 2010.
--Total ASIC design starts will have a CAGR of 7.6% from 2010 - 2014.
--The number of 'first time' designs in the SoC market dropped 16.6% in 2009 while derivative SoC designs dropped only 7.8%.
--The fastest growing category of silicon solution is the Basic SoC at a CAGR of 20.2%.
--The largest end market for ASIC design starts is the Communications market with 39.6% of the total.
--The fastest growing market category is the Transportation segment with a CAGR of 10.7%.

Semico recently published a sister report titled ASIC Design Starts by Key End Market Applications that looks at 71 different end applications to track design starts and unit shipments of the 9 different types of ASIC products.

To order either of these reports, contact us at jfeldhan@semico.com or 602-997-0337.

About Semico
We are a semiconductor marketing & consulting research company located in Phoenix, Arizona. Semico was founded in 1994 by a group of semiconductor industry experts. We have improved the validity of semiconductor product forecasts via technology roadmaps in end-use markets. Semico offers custom consulting, portfolio packages, individual market research studies and premier industry conferences.