Unlocking the IP vault

Startup retools in-house chip technology for the mass market

By Barbara Jorgensen -- Electronic Business, 12/1/2005

For decades chip companies have been sitting on a wealth of intellectual property they have developed for their own use. But now that the commercial market for semiconductor IP has hit more than $1 billion, chip companies are looking for new ways to unlock the value of internal IP.

The market for this IP consists of SoC developers that want to integrate as many functions on a chip as possible. "The question for these companies is, 'Do I acquire existing IP or develop it internally?'" says Jim Tully, vice president for semiconductor research at the Gartner Group. "It's the classic make-versus-buy decision."

Designers can go to a third-party IP vendor, but the process can be time-consuming and expensive. Getting internal semiconductor IP into the hands of the external SoC market can be problematic, for several reasons. First, most in-house IP wasn't developed for reuse or for the commercial market and requires modification for widespread use. Second, most chip companies are not set up to develop, license or sell IP to the masses. "We are designing silicon, and that's what our business model is based on," says Norbert Huemmer, a marketing manager for Freescale Semiconductor power train products in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. "Licensing IP is not our domain."