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 Bridging the Frontier
Bob Smith, Executive Director
Bob Smith, Executive Director
Bob Smith is Executive Director of the ESD Alliance responsible for its management and operations. Previously, Bob was senior vice president of Marketing and Business Development at Uniquify, responsible for brand development, positioning, strategy and business development activities. Bob began his … More »

Trends in the Semiconductor Design Ecosystem

 
July 20th, 2021 by Bob Smith, Executive Director

As Wally Rhines concluded his talk during SEMI’s “Innovation for a Transforming World,” we broke the news that our industry’s revenue increased 17% to $3,1571.7 million in Q1 2021, the highest total Q1 growth in 21 years. And according to Wally, Executive Sponsor of the SEMI Electronic Design Market Data (EDMD) report, and President and CEO of Cornami, this increase is almost three times the historical average.

While his opening slides in “Trends in the Semiconductor Design Ecosystem” covered the highlights of the EDMD report, Wally used the presentation to showcase some unmistakable megatrends driving the historic growth. EDA has shown sustained growth for more than a decade with new methodologies driving revenue growth. Since 2021, the industry has shown 8% CAGR and is now an $11.4-billion market.

U.S. companies continue to dominate with 90% of the revenue coming from companies concentrated on the West Coast. As well, nearly 40% of IP revenue comes from U.S.-based companies. And, despite the pandemic, design activity grew, and each quarter showed positive growth for our industry, and we continued hiring. “It’s a very good industry to be in,” he added.

One megatrend is the memorable move by system companies such as Apple and Google to custom chip designs, joining fabless and IDMs as the newest SoC designers and manufacturers. Venture capital investment in fabless semiconductor companies targeting AI and machine learning and some traditional applications is another, he noted. The impressive funding number in 2020 was $4.6 billion and it’s at more than $4 billion so far this year.

Wally reinforced what many industry watchers observe: China is making significant investment in the domestic semiconductor and EDA markets, both helping to grow revenue in our market. Approximately 32 startups developing point tools have been cited in domestic EDA funding announcements. Domestic venture funding in China is almost double that of the U.S.

Now, Wally found, new and traditional applications are driving EDA revenue growth with analog/mixed-signal and RF in the lead, followed by design for test, IC full custom layout and formal verification. As he finished his talk, he reviewed a host of new applications driving growth such as advanced packaging, 5G communications and machine learning both as a new application and enhancing design tool capabilities. In one of his final slides, Wally pointed to cybersecurity as a new design requirement, and added so are safety/reliability, packaging, EMI and formal verification.

Wally’s presentation offers so much more. I recommend taking the time to view it.

The news release includes information from the most recent EDMD report. The report found all product categories contributed with double-digit growth in the Computer Aided Engineering (CAE), IC Physical Design and Verification, Printed Circuit Board and Multi-Chip Module (PCB and MCM) and Semiconductor IP (SIP) segments. Geographically, the Americas; Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific (APAC) also reported double-digit growth. Total license and maintenance revenue, as well as IC Physical Design and Verification hit a new high for quarterly growing in Q1 2021.

Some additional highlights:

  • First-quarter revenue compares to $2,698 million in Q1 2020.
  • The four-quarter moving average comparing the most recent four quarters to the prior four rose 15%, the highest annual growth since 2011.
  • Companies tracked in the EDMD report employed 49,024 people in Q1 2021, a 6.7% increase over the Q1 2020 headcount of 45,938 and up 1.1% compared to Q4 2020.
  • The breakdown of revenue by product and application category looks like this:
  • CAE revenue increased 14% to $974.1 million compared to Q1 2020. The four-quarter CAE moving average increased 12.5%.
  • IC Physical Design and Verification revenue surged 34.4% to $682.5 million compared to Q1 2020. The four-quarter moving average for the category rose 23.6%.
  • Printed Circuit Board and Multi-Chip Module (PCB and MCM) revenue increased 15.3% to $289.2 million compared to Q1 2020. The four-quarter moving average for PCB and MCM increased 5.3%.
  • SIP revenue rose 12.9% to $1,113 million compared to Q1 2020. The four-quarter SIP moving average grew 17.1%.
  • Services revenue increased 0.1% to $98.9 million compared to Q1 2020. The four-quarter Services moving average held steady with no growth.

To learn more about the ESD Alliance, a SEMI Technology Community, EDMD and our other programs, initiatives and upcoming events, visit the ESD Alliance website. Or contact me at bsmith@semi.org.

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