By Coby Hanoch, CEO, Weebit Nano

Coby Hanoch

1. Increased localization of semiconductor production
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen unprecedented investment in semiconductor R&D and production around the world. Such investments take time to mature into actual fab capacities. According to SEMI, 57 new fabs began construction in 2020, 2021 and 2022 combined. In 2023, we will begin to see some of the earliest of these investments start to be realized, and despite economic headwinds, we will see continued public and private investments in semiconductor production in the coming year. All this spells opportunity for companies that are supplying technologies for advanced SoCs, including EDA tools, manufacturing equipment, and embedded technologies like Weebit’s ReRAM Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) IP.

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By Simon Butler, General Manager, Perforce

Simon Butler

Supply chain issues will work out of the system, including legacy analog processes used in automotive and other non data-center applications. A semiconductor over supply scenario is likely, especially for high volume and commodity parts (memory components are already making production cutbacks).

There will be more manufacturing activity in the US mostly around fab plant design and engineering; we won’t see actual wafers for another two years as the factories complete construction and begin to staff up. Expect more investigation into other aspects of the manufacturing process that could be bought back to the US: Testing, packaging, etc., and how much of these activities lend themselves to automation given that US labor is more expensive.

I expect to see an uptick in IP-centric based design, including IPs at the die level as part of chiplet based designs. These will require new platforms to handle the assembly and to secure the provenance of the constituent components. Expect aggregating IP catalogs that span multiple vendors and technologies, and with block chain style authentication and traceability to ensure what is being assembled is what is expected.

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By Rupert Baines, CMO, Codasip:

Rupert Baines

The ‘immutable’ laws are broken. 2023 offers a new era of custom compute. That or ruin.

After a few years of ‘catch up’, the world’s largest economies were left reeling from the pandemic impacts of 2020-22. The global economy overall is not in the greatest shape with geopolitics stifling national economies and throttling global trade routes. This is on top of the normal boom and bust cycle. The impact is inevitably felt in the semiconductor industry which had to manage an initial panic over supplies, before consumer demand scaled back and left many with excess inventories. Having said that, for the last two years, the industry has still seen growth. The industry forecasts for this year are not so bright, however.

But in spite of questions over industry forecasts for 2023, there are big opportunities for companies with strong foundations, and clear strategic direction that focus on helping their customers differentiate themselves. Some of this is, quite literally, about being in the right place at the right time.

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