Study sees emergence of China's fabless industry

Study sees emergence of China's fabless industry
By George Leopold, EE Times
March 7, 2003 (2:32 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030307S0021

WASHINGTON — China's "long march" to create a fabless IC infrastructure will require the rapid introduction of home-grown design technology with commercial IP, according to a new study of China's semiconductor industry.

The survey of Chinese IC design companies by market researchers iSuppli Corp. (El Segundo, Calif.) concludes that after years of reliance on a "reverse engineering" design methodology, Chinese fabless companies have broken through in areas like smart card ICs, communications ASICs and even 32- and 64-bit CPUs.

Other hurdles Chinese designers must overcome during the next phase of development include producing designs with quality comparable to its foreign rivals and lowering costs through the use of local and international fabs.

Among the report's other findings: