CAD/CAM/CAE : electronic design automation, 1992 - Archive Server

IC Layout Market 5-5
business. The past five years have seen a shift in the production of
semiconductors—once a U.S.-based industry—toward Asia. Asian
semiconductor vendors are now shifting their reliance from internal
IC tools to commercially supplied tools, Dataquest anticipates that
this trend will continue for the next three to five years as more IC
design is centered in Asia.
Market Share
The past four years has seen Cadence's market share skyrocket
from 27.6 percent in 1988 to 56,9 percent in 1991 (see Tables 5-2
and 5-3). Mentor Graphics, with its acquisition of Silicon Compiler
Systems in 19S9, became the second leading supplier, but still tails
Cadence by $77.6 million. However, IC layout may be considered a
duopoly at this point, with Cadence and Mentor Graphics to capture
74 percent of the worldwide IC layout market (see Figure 5-4),
Dataquest Perspective
IC layout software showed strong gains in comparison to the overall
EDA market in 1991. This growth stemmed from the stability of the
dominant vendors and the continuing need of semiconductor vendors
to shrink die sizes in order to improve gross margins. Those who
believe that "silicon is free" have not talked to chip-level designers,
whose efficacy is based upon his or her ability to deliver the most
performance and functionality on the smallest die size possible. This
is exemplified by the perception of electronic designer. Shown in
Figure 5-5 are North American designers' perceptions of the most
important factors to product success. Notice that increasing functionality
and reducing cost are ranked No. 2 and No. 3, behind "reducing
time to market."
CCAM-EDA-MT-9201 ©1992 Dataquest Incorporated October 12,1992