ASIC Market Alive and Well Reports In-Stat/MDR.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2004

In spite of what some market analysts might believe, In-Stat/MDR (http://www.instat.com) reports that the Application-Specific IC (ASIC) market is alive and well, and will continue to prosper in the future, albeit at a slower pace than history would have dictated. The high-tech market research firm finds that product differentiation is responsible for this market's health, and while design starts in customer-specific, cell-based design segment of the ASIC market will flatten out and decline somewhat in the future, revenues will continue to grow. However, structured ASIC and User-Programmable Logic (UPL) design starts will continue their upward trend, without slowdown in the future.

"All in all, when all the elements, or in this case design methodologies, are accounted for, design starts, for the overall ASIC market, will continue to slowly increase, i.e., the upsides will more than equalize the downsides," said Jerry Worchel, a principal analyst with In-Stat/MDR. "The customer-specific, MOS cell-based market will continue to find use across a wide spectrum of applications, ranging from relatively low volumes of high-complexity and high-cost products, to high and very high volumes of lower-complexity and low-cost products. While the classic MOS cell-based design methodology will continue to dominate ASIC market revenues throughout the forecast period, it will steadily be losing ground to two other ASIC design alternatives: user-programmable logic and structured ASICs, along with its associated variety of family members." In-Stat/MDR believes that between The Americas, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific, Asia Pacific will be the most dynamic region, while Europe will be the most static.

In-Stat/MDR has also found the following with regard to this market:

-- Worldwide merchant market dollar consumption of

customer-specific, cell-based designs, independent of

complexity and/or functionality, is forecast to grow from

$6,782.5 million in 2003 to $10,759.6 million by 2008,

translating to a forecast Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR),

between 2003 and 2008, of 9.7%.

-- Consumption in Asia Pacific will grow at more than twice the

pace of Europe and Japan, and 6.4 percentage points faster

than that of The Americas. Asia Pacific will also represent

the only region to see future design starts, in this

technology, continuously increase over the forecast period.

-- In the customer-specific, MOS standard cell market, similar to

other markets employing customer-specific, high-complexity

designs, high-end communications and data processing 

infrastructure applications will dominate dollar consumption,

but not necessarily in that order for every region.

The report, "Customer-Specific, Cell-Based IC Consumption; An End-Use/Geographic Comparison" (#IN0401724DE), presents comparative data analysis of customer-specific, cell-based product consumption, at the second-level end-use market level, for the four major geographic regions, i.e., The Americas, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific. This report compares data, for the geographic consumption of these products, both at the SIA-defined end-use market levels, as well as one level further down, to applications such as: networking factory automation, servers, cellular handsets and more. This report also includes a geographic comparison of device functionality, logic and mixed-signal. In addition, this report includes a discussion of the supplier base and its various supporting elements, such as intellectual property and the role of the fabless provider and foundry. One last issue associated with this technology is also addressed, and that is the difference between the reported values of this market per SIA definition and as reported by the WSTS, and the true size of the market, as reported by the suppliers. To purchase this report, or for more information, please visit: http://www.instat.com/catalog/Scatalogue.asp?id=19 or contact Courtney McEuen at 281-246-4668; [e-mail]. The report price is $2,745.

About In-Stat/MDR

In-Stat/MDR (http://www.instat.com) offers a broad range of information resources and analytical assets to technology vendors, service providers, technology professionals and market specialists worldwide. The company stands alone in its ability to integrate both supply-side and demand-side research methodologies into a single comprehensive view of technology markets and products. This capability relies on a unique ability to cover the entire value chain from engineering-level technology, through equipment, infrastructure, services and end users.

In-Stat/MDR is part of the Reed Electronics Group, a division of Reed Elsevier (www.reedelsevier.com), a world-leading publisher and information provider. With more than 38,000 employees worldwide, Reed Elsevier operates in the science & medical, legal, education and business-to-business industry sectors, providing high value and flexible information solutions to professional end users, with increasing emphasis on the Internet.