Date: 22/08/2011

Complex semiconductor chip design costs are skyrocketing, says Semico

Semico said in its release the software design costs have eclipsed silicon design efforts and have become the largest portion of the SoC creation effort. Semico has reported the design landscape has changed due to rising design complexity and lengthening design cycle times, especially in the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) market. These changes are having an impact on the SoC Design Start market delaying and preventing, to some degree, the architectural refreshes silicon designers undertake periodically to bring their solutions into line with changing market requirements and rising customer expectations, finds Semico.

The other market study highlights shared by Semico includes:

o Total SoC design costs increased 39% from the 32nm node to the 28nm node and are expected to increase 29% again at the 22nm node.
o Total SoC silicon design costs increased 35.7% at the 28nm node.
o Total Software design costs increased 42.5% at the 28nm node and are forecast to show a CAGR of 138.9% through the 14nm node.
o Advanced Performance Multicore SoCs represent the most expensive silicon designs with Value Multicore SoCs and Basic SoCs exhibiting lower design costs.
o Derivative SoC silicon designs allow designers to accomplish their solutions at a fraction of the cost compared to first time efforts at the same process node when it first becomes commercially available.
o Costs for an Advanced Performance Multicore SoC design, continuously done at the 45nm node, will experience a negative CAGR of 12.5% by the time the 14nm process geometry becomes commercially available, showing that subsequent designs at the same node become less expensive over time.
o 28nm silicon with a $20.00 ASP is required to ship 6.521M units to reach the breakeven point.
o Discussion of initiatives by EDA vendors to create tools allowing software designers to reduce design costs and more fully integrate their efforts with silicon designers.