tag: economics

It’s All About Money
By Ed Sperling - 02 Sep, 2009 - Comments: 0

In the end, it all comes down to money. In the beginning it’s all about money, too. But when it gets into the middle of the cycle, people seem to forget about that. System-level design, Moore’s Law, abstract modeling, lithographic advances and everything in between have all been caught in the worst downturn since the great depression. The problem is that instead of just independent secto... » read more

What Happens When We Hit Bottom?
By Ed Sperling - 02 Apr, 2009 - Comments: 0

The economy appears to have hit bottom. This is good news, but there are caveats.   First of all, not all industries will recover at the same rate. Communications never fully recovered from the dot-com bubble. Anyone who bet big on a communications recovery has either switched careers or retired. Now it looks as if the auto industry will be dragging for some time, and companies that hitche... » read more

New Tools, New Economics
By Ed Sperling - 27 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 0

The race is on to get new development tools out the door, and starting next month you’ll begin seeing many more of them.   Timing is everything, and these tools have to be ready for the next round of chip development—even if the chips aren’t being designed yet. But given that electronics design has to precede an industry recovery by 6 to 12 months, at the very least, and chips and ot... » read more

The Downturn’s Impact On Startups
By Ed Sperling - 05 Mar, 2009 - Comments: 0

The strong get stronger in a downturn for reasons that aren’t readily apparent at the outset of the slump.   First of all, contracts that are in place at the outset typically don’t get canceled—at least not at first, and frequently not at all. In the system-level design world, those contracts can last as long as 18 to 24 months. Even if the number of derivative chips is scaled back, ... » read more

New Pain Points In System-Level Design
By Ed Sperling - 22 Jan, 2009 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling One of the strange things about downturns is they force companies to re-examine what they do and question what kind of value they bring to the market. This is particularly true in the semiconductor world, where the average selling prices for chips has been sliding for the better part of two decades. In the case of the chip industry, which is heavily cyclical, that leaves lo... » read more

One Design, Many Products
By Pallab Chatterjee - 22 Jan, 2009 - Comments: 0

By Pallab Chatterjee The tightening worldwide economy finally has forced the consumer products arena to adopt an aggressive single-SKU mentality for their products. This means companies are now making a single standard product that can be sold into multiple applications. This marks a radical shift in the way products are being designed, a direction that makes the design and development proces... » read more

Not Everyone Feels The Pinch
By Ed Sperling - 18 Jan, 2009 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling In the midst of the longest and deepest downturn since the invention of the transistor, not everyone is doing badly. In fact, there are some bright spots across the electronics industry that seem to defy gravity, so to speak. In particular, design tools are doing well. When the industry is down, they’re typically down less because, as any successful executive in technolog... » read more

Exclusive Research: Where Are The Midsize Companies?
By Ed Sperling - 17 Dec, 2008 - Comments: 0

By Ed Sperling In the chip world it’s beginning to look like the erosion of the middle class, or at least the middle tier. The bulk of companies working in the semiconductor industry—from design to development—have annual revenues of either less than $10 million (26.2%) or more than $500 million (25.4%). The number between $10 million and $100 million is only 12.8%, while the number be... » read more

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