Industry Expert Blogs

The recent IP-SoC Days, hosted by Design & Reuse, provided an excellent opportunity for IP providers (intellectual property) and IP customers to exchange ideas and requirements and to review the state of the IP industry.  Here’s my take on the conference:

“Getting no respect”

One of the conference presenters called IP the “Rodney Dangerfield” of the semiconductor industry since it’s a $1.3B industry today compared to the $255B semiconductor industry. Yet if you look at the content of SoCs, 50% or more could be 3rd party licensed IP. And the licensed IP content will continue to rise given that system and semiconductor manufacturers are being asked to do more with less.  In fact, an engineering VP from a fabless semiconductor company said,  ‘We’re being asked to execute faster with less.’

Many companies struggle to launch new SoC programs because designers haven’t completed ongoing ones.  To compound the problem, SoC speed and complexity continues to grow—making it impossible for any one company to develop all the IP needed to successfully execute on schedule.  Clearly, having the ability to license value-added, high-quality IP is critical to the overall success and progression of the SoC industry.

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