SoC Interconnect: Don't DIY!

By Kurt Shuler, Arteris IP
EETimes (June 12, 2019)

With so many acquisitions in the interconnect IP market, you might be forgiven for thinking DIY interconnect is a good idea.

There’s been a lot of action in the interconnect IP market over the past year – most notably the acquisition of NetSpeed by Intel and Sonics by Facebook. What’s happening? Why are companies seeing the critical importance of interconnect IPs now? Is interconnect a key factor in system-on-chip (SoC) delivery productivity for multi-SoC project corporations? Are these acquisitions a way around the fact that interconnect development is lengthy, costly, and difficult?

The recent market consolidation might have some companies considering whether this is a do-it-yourself (DIY) project that your company should consider taking on. Whether it’s a simple crossbar switch or a full-function network-on-chip (NoC) architecture for advanced SoCs, all that’s needed are the right people with the right knowledge and a big budget; eventually, it could happen. But the question isn’t can you do it? It’s should you do it?

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