According to a new market research report available at Electronics.ca Publications, The Global Market for ASICs, the global market for application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) will be worth an estimated $18.5 billion in 2009. This is expected to increase to $22.3 billion in 2014, for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8%.

The market is broken down into structured ASICs and others. Other ASICs have the largest share of the market, worth an estimated $18.2 billion in 2009. This segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.7% to reach $21.9 billion in 2014.

Structured ASICs have the second-largest share of the market, generating an estimated $265.3 million in 2009. This segment is expected to increase at a CAGR of 8.4% to reach $396.3 million in 2014.
 
ASICs with attractive nonrecurring engineering (NRE) metrics are the proverbial holy grail of semiconductor manufacturing. ASICs have been around for a long time and have survived the notoriety of being resource burners. As a matter of fact, the ASICs sector has maintained a steady growth, often outpacing the overall semiconductor industry.
 
An interesting dimension to the ASICs industry is the development and hype surrounding the introduction of structured ASICs. This study forecasts that while structured ASICs read all right on paper, their market performance does not deliver justice to the high expectations that it has set for itself.

Finally, ASIC prospects cannot be fully appreciated unless the implications of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), its principal competitor, are factored into the analysis. Although originating from totally different design philosophies, ASICs and FPGAs continue to carry their competitive battle to new and high-end applications.


Details of the new report, table of contents and ordering information can be found on Electronics.ca Publications' web site. View the report: The Global Market for ASICs.