In a Surprising Finding, Average SoC Design Cost Will Increase Only 1.7% by 2023, says Semico Research

It has been true for many years in the semiconductor industry that even very complex applications require a range of design solutions and do not always require the most expensive solution. While it is true that SoCs with the highest design costs probably contain the most complexity, it does not necessarily follow that every product in a given geometry must also incur the same high costs to be competitive. Silicon designers and system architects are constantly looking for ways to reduce their design costs and still meet market requirements and ASP targets. Semico's new report SoC Silicon and Software 2018 Design Cost Analysis: How Rising Costs Impact SoC Design Starts addresses these and many other design concerns while concluding that the average design cost for all SoCs across all geometries will increase only 1.7% by 2023.  
 
"In general, Semico believes that although design costs for complex SoCs have increased, and that re-spins and long design cycle times are not optimum conditions for the SoC market, their effect on market growth has not been overly detrimental," says Rich Wawrzyniak, Sr. Market Analyst for ASIC & SoC at Semico. "Semico also believes that companies with innovative solutions to these issues (like new, more efficient tool sets from EDA companies or Semiconductor Intellectual Property blocks from 3rd Party IP companies) that make designers more productive will be well received by the market." 
 
Key findings of the report include:

• The average design cost for Value Multicore SoCs across all geometries was $4.8M in 2017.
• The average design cost for Basic SoCs across all geometries in 2017 was $1.7 million.
• The number of first-time-right designs has dropped at every process geometry since the 180nm node.
• Silicon design costs for a first-time Advanced Performance Multicore SoC at the 7nm node are projected to be 23% higher than at the 10nm node.

In a unique, insightful look at this constantly evolving market, Semico Research's new report, SoC Silicon and Software 2018 Design Cost Analysis: How Rising Costs Impact SoC Design Starts, examines the primary forces and integration pressures that are driving this market today in 135 pages, with 41 tables and 64 graphs.  This study analyzes many important questions facing the semiconductor industry today including:

1. What is the current cost for a Complex System-on-a-Chip (SoC) design, and what will it be in the near future?
2. Is it possible to do SoC designs without maximizing the costs for these designs?
3. What is the incidence of 'first-time-right' for these designs today and in the near future?
4. How is the design cycle time for these designs changing?
5. How do complicated software applications impact the design costs?
6. How fast are IP integration costs rising, and how high will they go?
7. What strategies are designers using to cope with rising design costs?
8. What is the average silicon design cost today for each process geometry and SoC type, and how quickly is it rising?
9. What impact will EDA tools that include some artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) functionality have on design costs for complex silicon?

For pricing and additional information, please contact:
Rick Vogelei
Business Development
Phone: 602-997-0337
Email: rickv@semico.com
 
About Semico
Semico is a semiconductor marketing & consulting research company located in Phoenix, Arizona.  We offer custom consulting, portfolio packages, individual market research studies and premier industry conferences.