The changing ASIC design landscape

PHOENIX, USA: 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. It tracks both design starts and unit shipments of nine different types of ASICs -- analog, mixed signal, gate array, advanced performance multicore SoCs, value multicore SoCs, basic SoCs, PLDs, FPGAs and structured ASICs.

Some of the data discussed in 89-page report includes:

* Total ASIC design starts fell 5.2 percent in 2009. Semico is forecasting a return to growth with an increase of 9.1 percent in 2010.

* Total ASIC design starts will have a CAGR of 7.6 percent from 2010-2014.

* The number of 'first time' designs in the SoC market dropped 16.6 percent in 2009, while derivative SoC designs dropped only 7.8 percent.

* The fastest growing category of silicon solution is the Basic SoC at a CAGR of 20.2 percent.

* The largest end market for ASIC design starts is the Communications market with 39.6 percent of the total.

* The fastest growing market category is the Transportation segment with a CAGR of 10.7 percent.