| Index |
|---|
| The NVM Insider, Issue 15 |
| Page 2 - Executive Opinion |
| Page 3 - Outside Thoughts |
| Page 4 - Sidense Out and About |
| All Pages |
March 2012
A quarterly look at embedded NVM/OTP happenings
Executive Opinion:
Attaining Acceptance in the Semiconductor IP Marketplace
Tom Schild, Vice President Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Sidense
Sidense recently licensed its OTP IP for its 200th customer design, a significant milestone for an IP company developing non-volatile 1T-OTP memory as its only product. During the past quarter, we announced licensing of our 1T-OTP macros to two new customers, Aptina and Toumaz Microsystems. We've also been successful licensing our 1T-OTP to many of the top 25 semiconductor companies, as ranked by iSuppli for 2010.
There are several metrics IP vendors can use to gauge their success. Revenue and profit, naturally, are near the top of the "successful" list. However, broad industry acceptance - as measured by the breadth and diversity of its customer base - is also very important. With our customer base continuing to grow, Sidense has shown that its 1T-OTP products are in demand by a lot of companies for applications such as code and encryption key storage, analog trimming and calibration, device configuration and device IDs. The number of customer designs show that many of our customers have done more than one design using our OTP, a good indicator of their satisfaction with Sidense and our OTP.
Outside Thoughts:
IP Paradox
By Eric Esteve, IPnest
The IP market is a niche market, with revenue of about 1% of the overall semiconductor business, but it is highly strategic for the chip makers. IP helps the chip maker to drastically improve their TTM, when buying a commodity function they can concentrate on the part of the design which differentiates them from the competition. When buying an advanced processor core, or a specific controller for the latest Ethernet protocol, to name a few, they can enter a certain market more rapidly and make a breakthrough.
Bringing so many advantages, the IP vendors should be very successful! In fact, what we see is an IP market dominated by either real innovators (ARM, Rambus or Silicon Image), or by a large EDA company who has built a strong portfolio by making successive acquisitions (USB, PCIe, DDRn, NVM, Memories, MIPI and mixed signal IP). Then you find a few dozen companies (maybe less) doing well, but no more, on niche markets. What about the other, several hundred companies? Trying to survive ...
Sidense Out and About
Press Releases
- Sidense Licenses 1T-OTP to Toumaz Microsystems for GLOBALFOUNDRIES 65nm Low-Power Process (Mar. 13, 2012))
- Sidense 1T-OTP Helps Calibrate Aptina's Advanced Imaging Products (Feb. 21, 2012)
- Sidense Enjoys Best Quarter in its History (Jan. 18, 2012)
Articles
-
Sidense Video - 1T-OTP
Click here to watch a short video on how Sidense 1T-OTP memory can be a Key Ingredient for Your Silicon Success
Visit Sidense at the Upcoming Conferences and Tradeshows
-
Common Platform Virtual Technology Forum 2012
To visit Sidense at the Common Platform Virtual Technology Forum online that began on March 14, please visit:
http://events.unisfair.com/index.jsp?eid=760&seid=16. -
TSMC Technology Symposiums
San Jose, CA - Tuesday, April 17, 2012
San Jose McEnery Convention Center, 408 S. Almaden Blvd., San Jose, CA 95110
To schedule a meeting at the TSMC Tech. Symposium in San Jose, please contact:
Jim Lipman, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 925-606-1370.
Waltham (Boston), MA - Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Westin-Waltham Boston, 70 3rd Ave, Waltham, MA 02451
Austin, TX - Thursday, April 26, 2012
Four Seasons Hotel, 98 San Jacinto Blvd., Austin, TX 78701
To schedule a meeting at the TSMC Tech Symposiums in Boston or Austin, please contact:
Susann Friedricks, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 830-613-8948.
Hsinchu, Taiwan – Thursday, May 10, 2012
Ambassador Hotel Hsinchu, 10F, No.188, Chung Hwa Road, Sec. 2, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, R.O.C
To schedule a meeting at the TSMC Tech Symposium in Hsinchu please contact: Morse Wang, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 886-6920-008-958.
Yokohama, Japan – Thursday, June 29, 20122
Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu, 2-3-7, Minato Mirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan 220-8543
To schedule a meeting at the TSMC Tech Symposium in Yokohama please contact: Kazuaki Okawa, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 81-3-3358-6252.
To register for the TSMC Technology Symposiums, please go to:
https://www.lookingcube.com/tsmc/symposium12/welcome_exhib.asp.
Find our IP catalog on ChipEstimate.com.
Executive Opinion:
Attaining Acceptance in the Semiconductor IP Marketplace
Tom Schild, Vice President Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Sidense
Sidense recently licensed its OTP IP for its 200th customer design, a significant milestone for an IP company developing non-volatile 1T-OTP memory as its only product. During the past quarter, we announced licensing of our 1T-OTP macros to two new customers, Aptina and Toumaz Microsystems. We've also been successful licensing our 1T-OTP to many of the top 25 semiconductor companies, as ranked by iSuppli for 2010.
There are several metrics IP vendors can use to gauge their success. Revenue and profit, naturally, are near the top of the "successful" list. However, broad industry acceptance - as measured by the breadth and diversity of its customer base - is also very important. With our customer base continuing to grow, Sidense has shown that its 1T-OTP products are in demand by a lot of companies for applications such as code and encryption key storage, analog trimming and calibration, device configuration and device IDs. The number of customer designs show that many of our customers have done more than one design using our OTP, a good indicator of their satisfaction with Sidense and our OTP.
Appealing to and winning customer approval of our 1T-OTP is due to several factors. First, we have developed our OTP for a wide range of foundries, process nodes and process variants. This allows our customers to use an OTP macro that has been proven for their particular process. We work closely with the top silicon foundries and selected IDMs to have our OTP meet their stringent qualification requirements; this gives our customers confidence that they are getting a reliable and proven OTP product. We offer industry-leading benchmarks in the terms of our macros' silicon area, providing a ROI for the initial IP purchase that engineering managers and VPs can easily justify, especially when coupled with the additional advantages of fast time to market, flexibility and customization that 1T-OTP can provide during the engineering process. Finally, we can provide the support a customer needs during the integration and design phase to assure their success.
Revenue and its growth are critical to the long-term success of any IP company. However, these other parameters are also factors to consider when judging the overall success of an IP vendor and they go a long way in assuring that a vendor will continue to provide the products and services demanded by and needed by its customers.
Outside Thoughts:
IP Paradox
By Eric Esteve, IPnest
The IP market is a niche market, with revenue of about 1% of the overall semiconductor business, but it is highly strategic for the chip makers. IP helps the chip maker to drastically improve their TTM, when buying a commodity function they can concentrate on the part of the design which differentiates them from the competition. When buying an advanced processor core, or a specific controller for the latest Ethernet protocol, to name a few, they can enter a certain market more rapidly and make a breakthrough. Bringing so many advantages, the IP vendors should be very successful! In fact, what we see is an IP market dominated by either real innovators (ARM, Rambus or Silicon Image), or by a large EDA company who has built a strong portfolio by making successive acquisitions (USB, PCIe, DDRn, NVM, Memories, MIPI and mixed signal IP). Then you find a few dozen companies (maybe less) doing well, but no more, on niche markets. What about the other, several hundred companies? Trying to survive ...
What is the problem you have when you need to buy a design IP? There are two major issues that you will face: you need a high quality product, fully verified and easy to integrate, and you want to pay the right price or the market price.
It is very easy to start selling IP - for example some design service companies who have developed a function for a single customer decide to market it as a real IP product. Because the entry cost is low, the IP market is very dynamic. There are many newcomers who can end up being real IP vendors or stay in the market for a couple of years and finally exit. If you start using an interconnect function, say PCI Express, you will probably use it in several generations of products, so your goal is to select a vendor who can support your product roadmap, stay in the market, and follow the PCIe protocol roadmap, generation after generation. With such requirements, you will discover that the short list is reduced considerably.
The goal at SemiWiki is to help you find your way across the IP market and to find the best way to meet your product goals!
About the Author
Eric has over 25 years of experience in the semiconductor industry, focused on ASIC and IP. He is one of the bloggers and a founding member of Semiwiki (www.semiwiki.com). He is also the founder of IPnest, a company which provides strategic consulting and IP-related Market Surveys to high-level customers, IP vendors, chipmakers and foundries, including Synopsys, Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Rambus, Sony, TI, Fujitsu, KSIA, Intel, LSI Logic, MoSys, Snowbush, CAST, Evatronix, Arasan, Mixel, Denali, nSys, Si Foundry, and GUC. Prior to IPnest, Eric was the Worldwide Marketing Director with PLDA, a market leader in PCI-Express Controller IP, and ASIC/ASSP Marketing Manager for North America with Atmel. He has also held various sales and marketing positions with Texas Instruments for many years, focused on ASIC business development. Eric started his career as an ASIC designer, working for Thomson CSF, MHS, ES2, Elecma, and GEC Alsthom. He holds a PhD in Microelectronics from the University of Paris, Descartes.
For more information about IPnest, please visit http://www.ip-nest.com/.
Sidense Out and About
Press Releases
- Sidense Licenses 1T-OTP to Toumaz Microsystems for GLOBALFOUNDRIES 65nm Low-Power Process (Mar. 13, 2012))
- Sidense 1T-OTP Helps Calibrate Aptina's Advanced Imaging Products (Feb. 21, 2012)
- Sidense Enjoys Best Quarter in its History (Jan. 18, 2012)
Articles
-
Sidense Video - 1T-OTP
Click here to watch a short video on how Sidense 1T-OTP memory can be a Key Ingredient for Your Silicon Success
Visit Sidense at the Upcoming Conferences and Tradeshows
Hsinchu, Taiwan – Thursday, May 10, 2012
Ambassador Hotel Hsinchu, 10F, No.188, Chung Hwa Road, Sec. 2, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, R.O.C
To schedule a meeting at the TSMC Tech Symposium in Hsinchu please contact: Morse Wang,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, 886-6920-008-958.
Yokohama, Japan – Thursday, June 29, 20122
Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu, 2-3-7, Minato Mirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan 220-8543
To schedule a meeting at the TSMC Tech Symposium in Yokohama please contact: Kazuaki Okawa,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
, 81-3-3358-6252.
-
Common Platform Virtual Technology Forum 2012
To visit Sidense at the Common Platform Virtual Technology Forum online that began on March 14, please visit:
http://events.unisfair.com/index.jsp?eid=760&seid=16. -
TSMC Technology Symposiums
San Jose, CA - Tuesday, April 17, 2012
San Jose McEnery Convention Center, 408 S. Almaden Blvd., San Jose, CA 95110
To schedule a meeting at the TSMC Tech. Symposium in San Jose, please contact:
Jim Lipman, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 925-606-1370.
Waltham (Boston), MA - Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Westin-Waltham Boston, 70 3rd Ave, Waltham, MA 02451
Austin, TX - Thursday, April 26, 2012
Four Seasons Hotel, 98 San Jacinto Blvd., Austin, TX 78701
To schedule a meeting at the TSMC Tech Symposiums in Boston or Austin, please contact:
Susann Friedricks, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 830-613-8948.
Hsinchu, Taiwan – Thursday, May 10, 2012
Ambassador Hotel Hsinchu, 10F, No.188, Chung Hwa Road, Sec. 2, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan, R.O.C
To schedule a meeting at the TSMC Tech Symposium in Hsinchu please contact: Morse Wang, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 886-6920-008-958.
Yokohama, Japan – Thursday, June 29, 20122
Pan Pacific Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu, 2-3-7, Minato Mirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan 220-8543
To schedule a meeting at the TSMC Tech Symposium in Yokohama please contact: Kazuaki Okawa, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 81-3-3358-6252.
To register for the TSMC Technology Symposiums, please go to:
https://www.lookingcube.com/tsmc/symposium12/welcome_exhib.asp.
Find our IP catalog on ChipEstimate.com.