By Kalar Rajendiran
Senior Marketing Director
eSilicon Corporation
Increasing complexity
and the resultant supply chain specialization has caused a shift in
the way electronics companies are approaching the chip design process.
More and more they are being forced to leverage the physical design
and integration expertise of third-party experts, via the Value Chain
Producer (VCP) model. The hallmark of a great VCP is its ability to
offer customers access to differentiating IP that is not easily available
from the open market. In today's competitive world, this could determine
the success or failure of a product.
The
Customers' Challenge: IP Access and Integration
To better understand
the significance of the VCP with regard to IP access and integration,
it is first important to have a clear understanding of the design process
and how IP availability has evolved over time.
Why has IP integration
become so challenging? The answer to that question comes from a closer
examination of the semiconductor ecosystem. Traditionally, a majority
of semiconductor companies were vertically integrated, having dedicated
internal resources for every step in the supply chain from design to
manufacturing and distribution. They were staffed by highly-specialized
engineers who understood all aspects of design, manufacturing, packaging
and test. And, they were also willing and able to make the significant
investment required to be successful. This included investing in IP
development for their customers' end applications.
Over the years this vertically-integrated
approach to design evolved due to the adoption of outsourcing of different
aspects of the semiconductor value chain as a temporary measure during
economic downturns.
As the economy recovered,
companies soon realized that it was simply more efficient to continue
to outsource than to bring the elements of the value chain back in-house.
Consequently, the outsourced functions were often left alone and companies
continued to rely on external suppliers. It made good business sense
for companies to go wherever the required skills were available and
where there existed the potential of local markets for their products.
Over time, the number of specialized suppliers increased to such a degree
that it brought about a new challenge - how to manage the value chain.
On one hand, the disaggregated value chain expanded the number of suppliers
providing commodity and foundation IP, however, it simultaneously, limited
access to certain differentiating IP. Third-party IP suppliers were
unwilling to invest in developing certain differentiating IP because
they either didn't have the expertise to develop, support and maintain
this IP or they didn't believe they can get a reasonable return on
their investment. Nevertheless, differentiating IP is key to both System
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and fabless semiconductor companies
(FSCs). Today, many companies are finding the answer to this challenge
in the Value Chain Producer.
eSilicon's
Solution: IP Access and Integration
Perhaps one of the most
critical contributions that the Value Chain Producer makes to the VCP
model is the value-add it brings in terms of IP access and Integration.
IP Access example:
Of late, the explosive
growth of broadband data and video services is rapidly increasing the
processing and bandwidth requirements on the underlying networking,
storage and computing infrastructure. System OEMs are continually pressured
to upgrade their offerings by building higher-speed interfaces on their
ASICs while maintaining the same form-factor and power specification.
FSCs face similar pressures and requirements with their high-speed interface
capabilities as they struggle to stay competitive and still maintain
strong product differentiation. Combine this with the wide array of
emerging technologies and interface protocol standards taking hold in
the market, the challenges in getting a new product to market can be
daunting. An important initial step towards overcoming these barriers
is having access to silicon-proven, high performance, multi-rate SerDes
cores in 90nm and 65nm CMOS processes.
Expertise with integrating
IP blocks is crucial to design success. This is an especially critical
issue when it comes to Hard IP (IP implemented in GDSII form).
The use of off-the-shelf
IP blocks has become widespread, mainly due to its ability to decrease
development time and increase quality; thereby improving productivity.
Unfortunately, increased productivity expectations are often lost in
the midst of IP integration challenges. The VCP, with its expertise
in relevant technical areas, established relationships with third-party
IP suppliers and experience with integrating IP blocks in multiple customer
designs, in multiple process technology flavors, can help meet the increased
productivity expectations while improving the overall customer experience.
Unlike a company whose
experience is based on doing one or two chips a year, the VCP with its
extensive expertise can work with the customer to select optimal IP
blocks. Furthermore, there are a number of "tricks of the trade"
involved in integrating multiple IP blocks from different IP suppliers
on one chip. These tricks often have to do with understanding the integration
guidelines from the different IP suppliers and their interaction at
the chip level. VCPs, because of their expertise, understand these tricks
and their implementation. Therefore, Hard IP integration is best left
in the hands of the VCPs. Doing so, frees the customer to focus on what
they do best -- architecting their design and integrating Soft IP (IP
delivered in RTL form).
Integration expertise
is also crucial for successful package selection or design. That's
because the interrelationship between package and IP is becoming increasingly
important as the limits of signal performance and power are pushed by
complex IP that is incorporated into chips. Therefore, it's especially
important to utilize a VCP that specializes in offering services such
as custom package design, thermal analysis and package simulation. It
is just as important that the VCP has the experience to understand the
interrelationship between IP performance and package characteristics.
A Better
Way
Bringing products to
market today is a multifaceted, global process often requiring involvement
from a range of suppliers including design tool and services providers,
equipment vendors, and test and packaging service providers; just to
name a few. This semiconductor value chain differs depending on a customer's
unique requirements and design. The semiconductor VCP is a new breed
of company which seeks to simplify and optimize this value chain by
consolidating a number of services and solutions traditionally offered
by disparate suppliers, and delivering them to the customer along with
lower cost, lower risk and increased flexibility.
In other words, the semiconductor
Value Chain Producer provides the physical design services, productization
services, manufacturing services and sources the IP blocks required
to develop a chip, but at costs similar to or lower than what it would
cost the customer to do it themselves. For its part, the customer provides
the R&D and application expertise; thereby allowing the VCP to keep
material costs to a minimum, while enabling a flexible, low-risk path
to volume production. As a result, the VCP model offers today's System
OEMs and FSCs a quick and cost-effective means of bringing products
to market.
This semiconductor Value
Chain Producer model provides companies with a number of key benefits,
including:
The ability to easily and
more efficiently develop new products - including multiple derivatives
for different applications - and to quickly bring these products to
high-volume production.
The ability to leverage the
skills, process knowledge and semiconductor supply chain management
experience of the VCP, as well as, its close relationships with back-end
suppliers.
The financial benefits of
"do-it-yourself" without the associated risks.
Conclusion
Due to the increasing
complexity and the resulting specialization in the world of chip design,
companies are now moving away from integrating IP themselves and moving
towards a model that leverages the physical design and integration expertise
of third-party experts. This category of experts is the semiconductor
Value Chain Producer. Today, more and more customers are establishing
relationships with a trusted VCP to build an optimized value chain which
can address their specific needs. Doing so provides customers with key
benefits, including the ability to easily and more efficiently develop
new products and to quickly bring these products to high-volume production.
About the Author:
Kalar Rajendiran is the Senior Director
of Marketing for eSilicon Corporation, where he is responsible for the
company's product marketing, marketing operations and semiconductor
IP strategy. He joined eSilicon in 2000, prior to the company's
public launch.
Rajendiran has held several senior engineering
and marketing management positions with National Semiconductor, LSI
Logic and Larsen & Toubro. He holds a BE in Electrical Engineering
from Anna University, an MS in Computer Science from Texas Tech University,
and an MBA from Santa Clara University.
