Date: 13/12/2011

Opportunities remain same for small companies in semiconductor business

As usual, Wally Rhines, Chairman of Mentor Graphics strongly suggests about opportunities for small and startup companies in semiconductor space. According to his analysis the opportunities for small companies has not shrinked at all. This time at the Mentor's U2U event in Bangalore, Wally presented with figures about the share of top leaders in chip industry. Using a slide with the picture shown below he shared how the share of Top-10, Top-15 and other players changed over the years, not much changed for the top players hinting continuation of availability of opportunities for small and startup companies. But the game is getting is riskier both for the top players as well as others.
The foundry market share is rising from 2008 onwards and the Integrated Device Manufacturer's revenue is falling, that means fables and fab-lite is growing! 28nm and nodes further down are only expected to maintain this trend. Wally Rhines says "28nm/20nm semiconductor technology will become a major workhorse compared to previous nodes. He expects design activity to accelerate in late 2012 to take advantage of the 28nm capability and capacity."

His prediction goes like this: Totally new applications will emerge because of the 28nm/20nm capability and cost, thus growing the semiconductor market in 2014+.

The design challenges are growing exponentially, For VLSI design companies the challenges goes like this: More designs, less time, same resources and less power.
On low power design challenge, Wally says Allocation of power budgets leave the toughest goals with the designers who have the least flexibility.
Electronics Engineering Herald