Semiconductor Engineering Article: EDA Grabs Bigger Slice Of Chip Market

EDA revenues have been a fairly constant percentage of semiconductor revenues, but that may change in 2019.
With new customers creating demand, and some traditional customers shifting focus from advanced nodes, the various branches of the EDA tool industry may be where sticky technical problems are solved. IC manufacturing, packaging and development tools all are finding new ways to handle the pressures that artificial intelligence, automation and security put on systems. But how long will this sweet spot last for EDA?
New markets, packaging and business factors are pressuring the IP industry to change. “In 2019, RISC-V will cross the commercial chasm with many practical semiconductor projects adopting the open instruction set,” says Dave Kelf, CMO for Breker Verification Systems. “This will be the most disruptive force the industry will have experienced in many years. Processor IP companies will not be able to react effectively as the extended instruction set processor market will be overwhelmed. Numerous tools, design flows and IP will be announced from many sources—except the big companies, which will be notably absent as they try and figure out their strategies.”
Open-source hardware and software could have a big impact on the IP world. “We have been following the rapid evolution of the RISC-V ecosystem and believe that 2019 will be year that it explodes,” says OneSpin’s Marchese. “A surprising number of companies are doing their own processor designs, but there will clearly be some strong IP options for those who want to buy rather than build. The ecosystem will offer many opportunities for tools and services to verify this new and novel instruction-set architecture (ISA), including the use of formal technologies.”
 
To read more, please visit: https://semiengineering.com/will-tool-vendors-break-out-in-2019/.