I recently participated in a panel hosted by TSMC. The other panelists represented EDA, IP and Foundry market segments. We were asked to comment on new business models as a means to facilitate more design-starts in companies large and small and, otherwise, make it easier to be in this business with increasing NREs and greater complexity.
To my delight the EDA guy talked about SaaS, software as a service; the IP guy talked about novel payment plans and strategic deals that concentrate the efficient development of basic IP into a few suppliers; the Foundry guy talked about, well, one guy from the audience said they support the open and creative models but they are not a bank. Hmmm, as they say, “two out of three”… Seriously, the Foundry guy from the company with the initials T…S…M…C described its receptivity to new business and payment ideas that put more chips in production solving more problems. They are all admirable goals and strategies.
For yours truly, the two hours was a delight. You see, I got to explain how eSilicon, a Value Chain Producer, has all this today and has had it for years. We have SaaS – we call it Global Design. We have shared and resourceful IP databases and services – we call that IP Zone. We have unique financing models as we amortize NRE into production, finance WIP, manage die banks and a half dozen other things that save the customer money. In fact, I made the case the VCP saves 25% of investment dollars for a company whose annual revenue is in the $20M-$250M range. The bigger companies could save nearly as much.
It’s great the industry is recognizing that innovation must come in our business models, as well as our laboratories. It’s great TSMC is stepping up to its leadership role for these discussions. But it’s truly great that the VCP is out there today, right now, providing every service required to stretch a dollar and meet a deadline.
The VCP has come of age!
