The semiconductor design house is floating...Aicland, CoAsia, AD Tech, GAONCHIPS, Existence ↑
[Digital Daily reporter Kim Do-hyun] Since last year, semiconductor consignment production (foundry) industry has been enjoying unprecedented boom. Major businesses, led by Taiwan's TSMC and Samsung Electronics, are nearing 100% of their factories' operation rate. With the volume of processing soaring, the presence of design house companies supporting them is also notable.
Four design houses received as much attention as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. It was able to realize its elevated status by setting up a booth near the two companies.
The design house acts as a foundry support force. It supports development of semiconductor design (fabless) businesses and performs mid-legged tasks. They are also involved in the process of entrusting outsourcing companies with packaging and testing processes. This means that it will manage overall processes excluding production.
TSMC and Samsung Electronics have design houses called Value Chain Partners (VCA) and Design Solution Partners (DSP). At the event, Asicland participated in VCA, and CoAsia, AD Technology, GAONCHIPS participated in DSP.
ASICLAND is a company that replaced the position of AD Technology, which was the only VCA in Korea. It is developing TSMC's latest processes and IPs for mass-production of semiconductors. It introduced total semiconductor design services and turnkey solutions at its booth. It recently signed a licensing agreement with South Korean GPU design company Silicon Art.
CoAsia is considered the biggest DSP. On this day, Samsung Electronics introduced chips that are specialized in system-on-chip (SoC) and automatic application processor (AP). It also displayed chips made in cooperation with NXP, a semiconductor business for vehicles. CoAsia has signed MOUs with HanaTec and is becoming a rival to Taiwan's largest VCA, Global Unichip (GUC).
AD Technology switched from VCA to DSP last year. After entering into business with Samsung Electronics, it is helping design process of 30 semiconductors based on high-tech processes. It introduced ASIC (On-Demand Semiconductor) solutions and MPW (Multi-Project Wafer) tasks.
GAONCHIPS is also a major DSP. Its main focus is ASIC design support. This event showed its presence through SoC design solutions, in-house development processes, and cost-saving design services.
By Kim Do Hyun dobest@ddaily.co.kr
http://www.ddaily.co.kr/news/article/?no=224264