ASIC Design Start Market Expected to Grow 7.1% in 2014, Says Semico Research

March 10, 2014 -- Improving market financials and continuing end market demand are combining to push ASIC Design activity to new levels. The Basic SoC market is being driven by the emergence in the Internet of Things (IoT) and the need for silicon solutions for this segment. Mixed Signal ASIC designs have been growing for the last few years as more and more systems seek to interface to analog type 'real world' functions. New research report from Semico, ASIC Design Starts for 2014 by Key End Market Applications, predicts the ASIC Design Start Market will grow 7.1% in 2014.

"Increases in ASIC Design Start activity are key to the improving health of the semiconductor market going forward," said Rich Wawrzyniak, Sr. Market Analyst. "The steady increases in unit volumes in many end markets also has a positive impact on design start activity and provides great support for the 3^rd Party IP market as well."

New research findings include:

• Advanced Performance Multicore will grow 5.3% in 2014
• Value Multicore SoC's will grow 5.6% in 2014.
• The entire ASIC Design Start market increased 5.9% in 2013
• 1^st time SoC design efforts will rise 5.2% in 2014.

This increase is on top of the 5.9% growth rate in 2013 and is based on very good growth in the Mixed Signal ASIC market and on the Basic SoC market.

This last point is important for the semiconductor industry since 1^st time SoC design efforts are where most designers develop or refresh the architectures that will carry their products forward over the next 2-3 years. A slowdown in these efforts can signal a reduction in innovation since 1^st time designs are usually the most expensive and contain the most innovation over previous generations. Increasing device complexity to meet rising market expectations for feature sets and functionality also is a driver of 1^st time design efforts and increases here bode well for the SoC market and the 3^rd Party IP market as well.

This just-released report from Semico Research, ASIC Design Starts for 2014 by Key End Market Applications, SC101-14, February 2014, contains a wealth of data about the current and future ASIC design start landscape in 177 pages with 150 tables and 79 charts.

Key Report Metrics:

• 73 end market applications are analyzed and organized into categories by Computer, Consumer, Communications, Industrial and Automotive
• 9 ASIC product types including Mixed Signal, 3 SoC types, FPGAs and PLDs analyzed by design starts with unit shipments for each
• Two years of history (2012 -2013) and a 5-year forecast (2014 – 2018) are provided