Opportunities Abound in the Structured ASIC Market

The emerging Structured ASIC segment breathed new life into an ailing overall ASIC market. Structured ASICs allow previous users who have left overall ASIC market to once again contemplate using a Structured ASIC solution for their application.

The emergence of the Structured ASIC represents a new category of semiconductors for the industry. The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) does not currently have a category labeled “Structured ASIC.” Therefore, Semico Research Corporation has created a definition that captures most of the important features that can be used to define a Structured ASIC.

· Use of movable (re-usable) Intellectual Property (IP).

· Use of internal on-chip buses.

· Use of ‘real-world’ interfaces such as IEEE 1394, USB, etc.

· A design of greater than 500,000 gates,

· Embedded memory of 1Mb or greater.

· An embedded CPU core with a clock speed of 100Mhz or greater.

· Silicon fabricated starting at 0.25mm and moving downward.

· Software drivers or ‘APIs’ are on-chip.

· Medium performance mixed-signal blocks are part of the solution.

Revenue for the Structured ASIC category grew 20% in 2006 and is projected to increase 13% in 2007 according to Semico. Unit growth of the worldwide Structured ASIC market is forecasted at a CAGR of 28.2% in the years 2007 through 2011.

“The Structured ASIC market can expect to show continued growth. Depending on outside factors such as worldwide economic conditions and market demand, growth could be explosive. This depends on how quickly older, existing designs are converted to Structured ASIC and how well costs are contained,” said Rich Wawrzyniak, Senior Analyst ASIC and Soc at Semico. “However, it must be pointed out that Structured ASIC operates best in a rather narrow volume band between where FPGAs leave off and Standard Cells begin.”

A comprehensive report, including detailed forecasts by regions and by application, is available for immediate delivery for $3,500. To purchase, please contact Susan Cadel at 607-368-7600 or susanc@semico.com, and reference report SC103-07, Structured ASIC Market Analysis and Forecast: Opportunities Abound.