Research Overview
Decreased Planning Time and Shortened Timelines Increase Pressure on VLSI Design Vendors
Continuously evolving technology in the very large scale integration (VLSI) design services market is compelling participants to improve methodologies and tool flows to gain a foothold in this highly competitive and fragmented business. Service providers are now under pressure to deliver on stringent timelines with less planning time. Only participants that focus on sustaining long-term relationships with end users are likely to survive in this cyclic industry.
This Frost & Sullivan's strategic analysis of the VLSI design services market, examines the demand for design services globally. The study provides in-depth information on digital, analog, and mixed signal services, besides offering a comprehensive overview of the latest industry trends, revenue forecasts, market drivers, and challenges.
Third-party Partnerships and Specialized Services Vital Market Trends
The trend of collaborating with third-party design houses to offer increased specialization is gaining momentum as participants are compelled to include innovation and creativity even in mundane projects. Such alliances are beneficial as they facilitate multitasking and optimum resource utilization, leading to better revenue per employee.
"At a time when disaggregation is creating specialization outside the company and the rapidly changing technology is increasing pressure on business, design service vendors that can offer better financial ratios are likely to be in great demand," says the research analyst. "A movement toward performance contracts where total payment is based on business performance and not solely on the technology is also expected."
Changing Roles of Design Service Vendors Increase End-User Value
Design service vendors have moved from being merely optimizers and enablers to becoming co-innovators. They are offering more end-user value due to scaled up complementary skills, internal methodologies, and process flows.
"To gain an edge in the current competitive environment, design service vendors have begun to co-innovate with semiconductor vendors. Currently, they serve as time-to-market specialists focusing on system architecture consulting and intellectual property solution development," concludes the analyst.
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Technologies
The following technologies are covered in this research:
Standard Cell Based ASIC: A standard cell design is a full custom circuit design completed using only predefined logic cells from a foundry's specific library and physical design processes provided by standard EDA/CAD tools. The set of library cells provided by the foundry is crucial; the coordination between the logical design and the physical design is substantially more effective if the library is rich.
Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA): The FPGA, like the gate array, places fixed cells on the wafer and the FPGA designer constructs more complex functions from these cells. However, the cells provided on the FPGA can be substantially more complex than the simple gates provided on the gate array. In addition, the term field "programmable" highlights the customizing of the ASIC by the user, rather than by the foundry manufacturing the FPGA.
Structured ASIC: Structured ASICs simplify the complexity of custom silicon design by providing a fabric of identical building block cells that are prearranged in a series of sizes and complexities. This means the design task is mapping the circuit into a fixed arrangement of known cells, rather than mapping standard cells to the design. Modular array ASIC, platform structured ASIC, and a few FPGAs fall under this category.
Application Specific Standard Product: It is a technology developed by one vendor to be built into products by multiple other vendors selling into a particular market. The term does not describe a technology per se, but rather the business model of its productization: one company leverages technology development costs across multiple companies' products (instead of only its own products).
Benefits of this Service
Revenue Forecasts and Geographical Analysis of the VLSI Design Market
The study includes market revenue and forecasts for 2003-2008 for the complete VLSI design service market including in depth analysis about various geographical revenue forecasts. This will enable participants to have a better understanding of this market to recognize and exploit opportunities for growth.
Detailed Geographic Analysis Will Help in Understanding Future Prospects and Aid in Devising Marketing Strategies
Frost & Sullivan's recent research on the nature and complexity of designs across various parts of the globe includes a deconstruction of Asia into the Indian, Korean, Chinese, and Taiwanese markets. This information will be beneficial for participants in understanding market trends and aid in identifying their core strengths and maximizing them. The study will also provide insights to help construct marketing strategies for long-term goals.
Market Sectors
Expert Frost & Sullivan analysts thoroughly examine the following market sectors within the VLSI Design Service window in this research:
- Digital Design Services
- Analog Design Services
- Mixed Signal and RF Design Services
- VLSI Design Service Overall Market
- VLSI Design Service Market by Geography
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