Myths To Dispel About Custom Analog ASIC Design
Designing electronic products such as analog ASIC or custom silicon can be designed according to customer specifications. But there are myths to dispel in accordance with analog design or digital ASIC design. Here are several myths that can be busted with some of the recent changes in the semiconductor industry.
ASICs Are Expensive To Produce
To maximize the utilization of foundries and return on investment, steps are now taken by manufacturers to attract customers. Thus, lowering the cost of engineering.
Moreover, the increase in the availability of capacity on the basis of mature process nodes is keeping such costs low. This means that it is more cost-efficient to create custom silicon.
Making Custom Chips Requires Very High Volumes
This is not true because switching to a custom analog design for ASICs can remove the redundancy and will consolidate its functionality. Thus, it generates a significant bill of material savings to easily reach well over 50%. In this case, ASICs can make good business and engineering sense even at low or medium volumes.
It Is Expensive To Design Custom Silicon
There are experienced design houses with existing silicon-proven IP libraries. Therefore, it can leverage and keep costs low. So design houses can deliver a turnkey experience that often is more affordable than expected.
It Is Time-Consuming To Create Custom Silicon
Good design houses can now leverage existing silicon-proven IP libraries. In this sense, it can greatly reduce design time. Therefore, it will have a better design process flow to speed up time-to-market.
It Requires Hard Work To Engage In Analog/Mixed-Signal
Those who develop the mixed-signal or analog design for ASICs are adept at identifying and addressing the implications of layout between analog and digital circuitry. So it requires system-level understanding and experience to determine which design practices would work best.
You Are At Risk To Go Out Of Business When Working With A Custom Supplier
It is not true that you get into supply problems when you are working with major foundries or established design houses. In fact, the risk of supply only happens when using off-the-shelf components from different suppliers.
It Is Prohibitively Expensive To License IP
This is the exact opposite because costs in licensing IP can be minimized. This is made possible because design houses can leverage their own libraries of IP developed in-house, as well as greater buying power. This makes it available to customers at very competitive prices.
Design Houses Only Help With Hardware
Actually, design houses also work with customers to support software development for the complete system, aside from just developing hardware.
Your Design Partner Dictates What Customers Must Use To Implement
Customers are not restricted to a particular manufacturing partner because they can choose who to work with. This is due to the fact that design houses often want to select the best partners.
Custom Silicon Only Benefits Very Specific Niche Requirements
There are lots of benefits with custom silicon, including improved efficiencies to space savings, IP security, and BOM cost reductions.
Customers Are kept In The Dark Because Design Happens In A Black Box
Good design houses will work at every step of the way side-by-side with the customer in order to achieve the desired system. The entire process is actually open and transparent, rather than a black-box approach.
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