Panelists critique IDM, foundry, fabless models
Richard Goering, EE Times
(10/10/2006 2:29 PM EDT)
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It's becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to own a semiconductor fabrication facility, according to panelists at Mentor Graphics' EDA Tech Forum here Monday (Oct. 9). But panelists disagreed over the viability of the fabless semiconductor, integrated device manufacturer (IDM), and foundry models as process nodes shrink.
Moderator Wally Rhines, Mentor Graphics CEO, opened by quoting a Gartner Dataquest report that around 25 percent of semiconductor revenues come from fabless companies. This figure is expected to slowly increase to about 30 percent. But Rhines noted that there are very few "pure" fabless, IDM, or foundry companies. He observed that two IDMs represented on the panel — Samsung and Freescale — also buy and sell foundry capacity.
The IDM approach has key advantages, said Chekib Akrout, vice president of technology at Freescale Semiconductor. "It allows us to develop a design and have the interaction we need with manufacturing," he said. "That synergy allows us to provide the best product for our customers."
Richard Tobias, CTO and vice president of engineering at Pixelworks, responded that there's no disadvantage to not having a fab. He said his company's fabless approach allows it to work with multiple foundries, and removes worries about fab capacity.
To read the full article, click here
Related Semiconductor IP
- NFC wireless interface supporting ISO14443 A and B with EEPROM on SMIC 180nm
- DDR5 MRDIMM PHY and Controller
- RVA23, Multi-cluster, Hypervisor and Android
- HBM4E PHY and controller
- LZ4/Snappy Data Compressor
Related News
- Panelists question fabless model viability
- Fabless IC Company Sales "Shine" While IDM IC Sales "Slump" in 2012
- U.S.-Headquartered Companies Capture Bulk of IDM, Fabless IC Sales
- U.S. Companies Continue to Capture Bulk of IDM and Fabless IC Sales
Latest News
- CAST Releases First Dual LZ4 and Snappy Lossless Data Compression IP Core
- Arteris Wins “AI Engineering Innovation Award” at the 2025 AI Breakthrough Awards
- SEMI Forecasts 69% Growth in Advanced Chipmaking Capacity Through 2028 Due to AI
- eMemory’s NeoFuse OTP Qualifies on TSMC’s N3P Process, Enabling Secure Memory for Advanced AI and HPC Chips
- AIREV and Tenstorrent Unite to Launch Advanced Agentic AI Stack