ASIC design starts slowing, but market growth continues

David Bursky, EE Times
(07/24/2006 6:02 AM EDT)

SAN FRANCISCO — Although the withdrawal of LSI Logic from the structured ASIC market has caused every analyst to rewrite their market predictions downward, the market for structured ASICs is still significant, according to Bryan Lewis, vice president of semiconductor research at market researcher Gartner Inc.

In 2006, Lewis estimates the structured/platform ASIC market will be worth about $417 million, down from his own previous forecast of $473 million. Over the next few years, the structured/platform ASIC market will gain strength, growing to $564 Million in 2007 and to just over $1 billion in 2010, according to Lewis.

Although sales of structured devices are increasing, the percentage as part of the total ASIC market will decrease to just 3 percent of a $30-billion-plus market, Lewis said. Furthermore, the number of ASIC design starts overall is continuing to fall since its peak of almost 11,000 in 1997. By 2007, there might be as few as 3,000 traditional ASIC design starts per year, while structured ASICs might see as few as 320 design starts in 2007, he said, attributing some of this decrease to consolidation and some to the increasing cost of ASIC design.

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