Capgemini-衍生芯片的兴起——将新芯片赶出去（英）

The rise of derivative chips - Driving “new” out of “now”It’s no longer about how long a chip lasts but how to keep a chip relevantThe global semiconductor market is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2030, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association and McKinsey. It’s an exciting number, but that massive growth creates gripping pressure in the industry. Talent and resources continue to be constrained, and designing a chip from the ground up is no longer commercially viable every time there is a new use case or application.As technology advances rapidly, chips must change in months, not years. Most semiconductor companies have leveraged derivative chips for years because modifying features of an existing, proven chip is more manageable than developing brand-new technology. It also prolongs the lifecycle of a chip that took millions of dollars to develop. It could stretch out that resource by as much as six-plus years.Every six months, a new technology emerges that may need the latest generation of memory, a new core feature, or a faster IO interface for more efficient computing. Modifying the existing chip’s base design can achieve any of these incremental demands. Derivative chips are no longer just a way to extend the life of a chip for return on investment (ROI), but a necessity for keeping up with market demands and assuring chips are relevant.Enter new market segments faster while keeping share in native segmentsFor example, a leading chip supplier for medical imaging systems may have saturated its device market but see an opportunity in another medical imaging device or imaging segment with broad functionalities met by the chip they mass manufacture. However, this new application needs additional IO and memory subsystem features to meet the adjacent market. This is a good case for creating a derivative chip, as it offers an increased return on investment, product life span, and revenue for the original chip design over its lifecycle.Why derivative chips make senseDerivative chips are the quickest way to enhance features and deliver variants to the market. The original derivative strategy enabled incremental revenue over a chip’s codal life or avoided the investment in a completely new chip design. But now, semiconductor companies must pursue derivatives more aggressively to keep up with the emerging technologies and rapidly changing demand. Derivatives offer the following benefitsCompete on features and priceIf a new chip is designed for a new segment from the ground up, it will take a year plus significant research and development investment and most likely create an impossible target OEM price. Derivative chips enhance features, performance, and cost competitiveness by leveraging existing product, which helps quickly address new market needs, deliver customizations, and optimize performance and new features at a competitive cost.Maintain product quality and retain clientsAny new chip design requires significant time from the first tap