Strong growth numbers in Q3 reflect overall semiconductor market strength, complexity of design.
EDA and IP growth increased to $2.094 billion in Q3, a 7% gain over the $1.958 billion reported for the same period in 2015, according to just released data from the Electronic System Design Alliance Market Statistics Service.
All geographic regions reported growth last quarter. So did computer-aided engineering, the largest single category, which grew 5.0% to $666.7 million in Q3, up from $634.7 million in the same period in 2015. IC physical design and verification grew 8.2% to $407.9 million. And total IP revenue grew 10.4% to $720.9 million, up from $652.9 million.
“There are some interesting numbers in this report,” said Wally Rhines, board sponsor for the ESDA MSS, and chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics. “While you shouldn’t look at any one quarter as a basis, this was stronger than the overall semiconductor market. Emulation was up 13%, but it also was up 12% for the year. Test was up 40%.”
Source: ESDA MSS
To some extent, the numbers are a reflection of just how complex chips have become. Where a spreadsheet used to suffice in the past, it no longer works well enough.
“Design rule checking and yield enhancement grew 19%,” Rhines noted. “More and more, deep learning is becoming a methodology. You can ramp up production quickly and monitor the outliers. You can look at second-order and third-order effects that you never looked at in the past. The methodology has changed.”
Source: ESDA MSS
Employment in the industry also grew 6.2% in Q3. There were a total of 35,515 professionals in the EDA and IP industry, compared with 33,430 in the year-ago period.
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