IP, Intellectual Property is a right to something intangible but with property value. Semiconductor industry have IPs, just as in many different industries. Especially, the growth of system semiconductor industry, the importance of semiconductor IP is also increasing. So semiconductor IP companies are gaining attention in recent. In this post, we’ll discuss what semiconductor IP is and why it’s becoming increasingly important.

‘SoC’, a term necessary to understand semiconductor IP.

First, we should understand ‘SoC’ to know what semiconductor IP is. ‘SoC’ is ‘System on Chip’, a semiconductor that implements computer systems on a single chip. A typical desktop computer is made up of several different components, including CPU, GPU, and memories. These components are combined into a single chip called an ‘SoC’.

SoC looks like an ordinary semiconductor, but it’s actually made up of parts that perform different functions, called “functional block”. For example, a smartphone we use has a single chip, many different functional blocks inside the chip including the block that plays video, the block that operates the camera, security, and so on.

What is Semiconductor IP?

Semiconductor IP is a functional block that is designed to be usable. We mentioned that SoC is a collection of functional blocks that perform different functions, but SoC companies can’t design all these functional blocks themselves. So they use other SoC design companies to buy functional blocks they need. The functional blocks that designed for SoC is semiconductor IP, it is pre-designed intellectual property that goes into the semiconductor.

‘ARM’ is a famous global company that deals with semiconductor IP. ARM is a Nasdaq-listed global semiconductor IP company; their main product is a semiconductor IP to be used to design semiconductors. ARM’s semiconductor IP enables high performance with low power, which is why 90% of smartphones and 85% of tablet PCs use ARM’s semiconductor IP.

To made powerful semiconductor IP as ARM, ‘PPA(Power, Area, Performance)’ is very important condition. To be competitive, it is necessary to develop semiconductor IP that enables higher performance while using less power or area, and in particular, to develop semiconductor IP that is expected to be highly desirable while keeping a close study the market demand and try to preempt the market before competitors.

System semiconductors, the heart of the semiconductor industry.

Semiconductor IP is a key for the growth of semiconductor industry. There are a lot of different types of semiconductor IP needed to make a system semiconductor made. We will be able to make better system semiconductor chips if we have a lot of proven IPs with good performances, also it will be helpful to grow the system semiconductor industry in Korea.

Recently, software that used to be implemented using CPUs or GPUs is increasingly being implemented on semiconductors and circuits. For example, Apple’s A17 pro chip is a hardware implementation of raytracing on a chip. ‘Acceleration’ is a power of hardware has shaped this semiconductor trend, and it is also a sign that semiconductor IP will be in increasing demand going forward. It suggests that the demand for semiconductor IP will increase in the future, and the types of semiconductor IP that will emerge will become more diverse.