FSA Announces Critical Mass and Support for Hard IP Development of VSIA Quality IP Metric; Nearly 60 Companies Support QIP Metric Development
SAN JOSE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Feb. 10, 2004—
The Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA), the global
voice for fabless and hybrid semiconductor companies and their foundry
and supply-chain partners, announced today it has received widespread
industry support for the development and future adoption of a quality
intellectual property (QIP) industry metric from nearly 60 companies.
Companies supporting QIP metric efforts include:
IP Suppliers: Advanced RFIC, ARM, Artisan Components, Barcelona
Design, Cadence Design Systems, Dolphin Integration, Faraday,
Lightspeed Semiconductor, Mobius Microsystems, MoSys, STARC, Synopsys,
The VCX, Virage Logic and Virtual Silicon Technology.
Fabless Companies/Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs): Agere,
Atheros Communications, ATI Technologies, Inc., Broadcom, Centillium
Communications, Cirrus Logic, Conexant, Corrent, eSilicon, Exar,
iVivity, LSI Logic, Matrix Semiconductor, Mindspeed, Motorola, NVIDIA,
PMC-Sierra, QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies, SiRES Labs, SMSC, TranSwitch,
ViXS, Wavesat Wireless, Zarlink Semiconductor and ZettaCore.
Foundries: 1st Silicon, Chartered, Hynix, IBM, Silterra, Tower
Semiconductor, TSMC and UMC.
Other Suppliers: Amkor, Applied Materials, Aspen Technologies,
Giga Scale IC, iPWERX, Magma Design Automation, Mentor Graphics,
Mindbrook, NPTest, Synchronicity and Teradyne.
Designers are increasingly utilizing third-party IP to solve
complex design problems, as third-party IP shortens cycle times and
enables design teams to focus on product differentiation versus
building blocks. But increasing complexity is complicating these
transactions, making IP more difficult to integrate and support, and
variations in quality remain problematic.
The FSA board of directors formed the IP Committee in 2002 to
develop a standard to address these IP quality issues. As part of this
effort, the FSA is working with the VSI Alliance (VSIA), which is
chartered with developing open standards for system-on-chip (SOC)
development and IP integration. The FSA and VSIA formally announced a
strategic alliance in October 2003 to work together to accelerate the
adoption and rollout of an industry QIP Metric.
The FSA IP Committee is currently leading two working groups in
this effort: the Hard IP Working Group, which is responsible for
extending the QIP Metric to include hard IP and silicon verification,
and the QIP Rollout Group, which is working to encourage QIP adoption
among fabless/IDM companies and their partners.
"It's exciting to see the growing support for this extremely
important initiative," said Jim Ensell, chairman of the FSA IP
Committee and vice president of marketing at Virage Logic. "There is
clearly industry recognition of the significance of the IP quality
issue, and a willingness on the part of suppliers, foundries, IDMs and
fabless companies to participate in improving IP quality for the
benefit of our industry."
FSA member and VSIA QIP contributor Synopsys said that in the last
few months it has seen SOC designers increasingly interested in
quality metrics.
"Designers looking to license IP recognize the importance of
design-for-reuse and design-for-quality methodologies. FSA members
have identified that they are looking for better ways of evaluating IP
quality for use in their designs," said Guri Stark, vice president of
marketing, DesignWare IP, services and corporate marketing at
Synopsys. "Synopsys plays an active role on the FSA QIP Rollout
Working Group and strongly supports open standards like the VSIA QIP,
which provides an excellent starting point for an efficient discussion
about IP quality."
About the Fabless Semiconductor Association:
The FSA is the global voice of fabless and hybrid semiconductor
companies and their foundry and supply-chain partners. Incorporated in
1994, the Association (www.fsa.org) is focused on the perpetuation of
the fabless business model throughout the worldwide semiconductor
industry. The organization encourages the relationship between
semiconductor companies and suppliers; facilitates business
partnerships; creates awareness of the fabless/outsourced business
model; disseminates industry data; and fosters standards and policies.
FSA members include fabless companies, IDMs, foundry providers,
packaging/assembly houses, intellectual property providers, electronic
design automation companies, OEMs, photomask companies, design
software companies, investment bankers, venture capitalists and other
companies. FSA members represent more than 21 countries spanning North
America, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.
Contact:
Fabless Semiconductor Association
Vivian Pangburn, 972-866-7579, ext. 140
vpangburn@fsa.org
or
Media Contact:
Shelton PR
Helen Garrett/Erin Anthony, 972-239-5119, ext. 201/135
hgarrett@sheltongroup.com
eanthony@sheltongroup.com
