Semico: Semiconductor Intellectual Property: Continuing on the Path to Growth

The 3rd Party Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP) market has continued to increase its importance to designers for System-on-a-Chip (SoC) through its ability to help reduce the design time and overall costs for these complex silicon solutions.  The growth experienced in 2007 will continue during the next five years as the 2007 -2012 CAGR is forecasted to exceed 18% and the SIP market to surpass $5,500 million in 2012.

One way to segment SIP is into 3rd Party Developed IP and Internally Developed IP.  “When we look at SIP as a function of total silicon costs, 3rd Party Developed IP has decreased dramatically and now represents less than 5% while Internally Developed IP is greater than 25% of silicon costs,” states Rich Wawrzyniak, Senior Analyst at Semico Research.  “To combat some of the Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) costs associated with SIP, it is likely the market will see IDMs start to license their own internally developed, proprietary SIP to 3rd parties who are not direct customers of their silicon as a means of offsetting these new costs.”

A new trend in the SIP market and System on a Chip (SoC) is to include more than one complete SoC on the same die, facilitated by better, more functional SIP.  Also the number of separate IP blocks used in complex Soc designs continues to increase, reaching approximately 30 per design in 2007.  These are trends that will continue in the future.

An analysis of what the SIP market will look like during the next five years and a detailed forecast of the factors that will drive this expanding market can be found in Semico’s Semiconductor Intellectual Property report.

To receive a copy of the Table of Contents, including a list of tables and figures, or to purchase this study, please contact Susan Cadel at 607-368-7600 or susanc@semico.com and reference the Semiconductor Intellectual Property report.