System(s)-on-a-Chip: Changes in SoC Design Methodology

Advances in the 3rd Party Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP) market as well as in the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) market have allowed silicon designers to increase the complexity in their silicon solutions to the point where the industry can actually think about these solutions in the plural sense, as System(s)-on-a-Chip (SoC).
The rise of multicore and many-core SoCs engender solutions that encompass complete and highly differentiated architectures, better fitted to the applications they are targeted towards. The trend towards higher complexity applications has confirmed the SoC design methodology as the methodology of choice for silicon designers and architects to accomplish their silicon solutions.

The acceptance of the SoC design methodology has led to a 12.6% increase in 2012 unit shipments and a forecasted 11.5% increase in 2013 shipments with forecasted revenues for 2013 increasing 12.2% to reach $92.9B.

In a unique, insightful look at this growing market, Semico Research Corp. has published a new report entitled System(s)-on-a-Chip: Changes in SoC Design Methodology (SC101-13, March 2013), which examines the evolutionary forces and integration pressures that are driving this market today.

Some of the topics and data discussed in 89 pages, with 11 tables and 65 graphs, are:

Topics Discussed:
• Evolutionary forces that have created the SoC market
• Evolution of the SoC concept
• How the SoC market has split into three main product types
• Definitions of SoC product types
• Changes in SoC design methodology driven by use of 3rd Party IP
• How SoC design costs influence the market
• How die area partitioning differs by SoC product type

Forecast Data: 2013 - 2017
• Worldwide SoC market revenue forecast by SoC product type
• Worldwide SoC market unit shipments by device type
• Worldwide SoC market revenues by end application category
• Worldwide ASIC market revenue and unit forecast
• Worldwide ASSP market revenue and unit forecast
• Worldwide SoC market usage by region

Semico believes advances in the SIP and EDA markets will continue to allow more complex and converged architectures in the SoC market. Ultimately, this means that SoC solutions will better mirror end-market requirements for feature sets and functionality, and that there is room for innovative products to continue to enter the electronics market.