Outsourced IC design revenue up in 2009, says Gartner

Peter Clarke, EETimes
8/16/2010 7:08 AM EDT

LONDON – Although the absolute number of ICs designed each year continues to decline, an increasing proportion of IC designs are getting outsourced to service companies and they are charging more for their work, according to market research company Gartner Inc.

The total number of design starts declined by about 15 percent in 2009 compared with the previous year, Gartner (Stamford, Connecticut). At the same time the number of outsourced design starts declined by 9 percent in 2009, indicating that the number grew as a percentage of the total. Gartner said it captured its data by a survey of 35 vendors offering integrated circuit design services

However, despite the 9 percent decline in chip design starts, the design service revenue associated with those starts grew by 18 percent in 2009.

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