Shenzhen IC alone "hot"

IC (Integrated Circuit) industry has been regarded as the "heart" and "soul" of IT and electronics industry. It is a strategic industry that realizes the upgrading of industrial structure in the 21st century; IC design is the leading field of the entire IC industry chain and it is a direct impetus. The key to the "upgrading" of digital mobile phone industry such as mobile phones, TVs and MP3/MP4 in our city. In recent years, China has developed into a global IC consumer and is also the fastest growing IC design industry. However, since last year, affected by the global financial crisis, the global IC industry has been declining and it has encountered an unprecedented "industry winter."

Although the economic crisis caused the global IC industry to suffer “avalanche,” Shenzhen’s IC design industry is thriving. Last year, the annual output value exceeded RMB 6.1 billion, which was a year-on-year increase of nearly 25%, and it ranked first in the country for the first time.

It is learned that Shenzhen is the world's largest color TV, mobile phone, notebook computer, U disk, MP3 large enterprise gathering place and IC consumption place, pay attention to R&D and innovation, and it is an important factor for the growth of Shenzhen IC industry against the market. For example, companies such as Hass, ZTE Micro, and Chipbond, which are “bound” with the entire machine manufacturer, have achieved sales revenue of 2.6 billion yuan last year due to Huawei’s growth rate of more than 50% last year, becoming a domestic IC design. The industry leader; USB flash drive makers, because it has become a large number of mobile storage vendors at home and abroad, the mainstream supplier, currently still firmly occupies more than 40% of the world's USB flash drive chip, with a strong ability to resist the economic crisis.

If IC design companies in China want to reach the bottom, it will be inseparable from technology and markets to become bigger and stronger.

Must choose the market that suits oneself first, and choose the appropriate cut-in opportunity, avoid getting together. Although the international semiconductor industry has entered a mature period, there will still be a lag between China’s development and that of foreign countries. This gives a period of cushioning for China’s IC design industry, plus China’s vast market space, as long as it chooses the right direction. Chinese IC companies still have the opportunity to become bigger and stronger.

Shenzhen is a gathering place for IC production in China. It has unique advantages for Shenzhen to develop IC design industry. The first is that the complete machine manufacturers gathered in Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta region are the main markets for IC design. The design companies and the machine manufacturers interact and cooperate to form the best technological innovation environment and industrial development atmosphere in the country; second, Shenzhen has good The software environment and logistics foundation are the important distribution markets for ICs and have the conditions to become China's major IC industry centers. Thirdly, Shenzhen is located adjacent to Hong Kong and Macau, and IC design can be better adapted to the application market and integrated into the technological innovation environment. Fourth, Shenzhen. From IC design, manufacturing, packaging and testing to product application, the entire IC industry chain has been perfected. It is one of the best areas for IC design industry development in China. Fifth, Shenzhen has a good industrial foundation. Currently, the number and output value of IC design companies have been improved. It is one-fifth of the country's national share, and it has the potential to become bigger and stronger. Finally, the government has taken the lead. The national IC design Shenzhen industrialization base and the government’s strong support for the IC design industry are also the advantages of the Shenzhen IC industry.

After handling the relationship with the external environment, the Chinese IC design company should also adjust its own impetuous mentality, and cooperate with the upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to innovate, strive to reduce costs, and regain their competitiveness. The IC design industry must keep calm to focus on a certain area. Without years of accumulation, there will be no return. Only real companies that can do things in a down-to-earth manner can succeed.

The semiconductor industry is a global industry. The competition between companies in the future is a competition in overall strength. Although the low operating costs and rapid response can help Chinese IC design companies to complete the initial accumulation, they need to grow into large companies and get rid of the cost cycle. Still need technological innovation.

Technological innovation cannot have so many originalities. Introducing, digesting, and reinventing are also innovations. For example, VeriSilicon purchased LSI's DSP licensing business. In addition, innovation includes not only technological innovation, but also business model innovation, management innovation, and corporate culture innovation. For example, in the future, IC design companies want to be lightly loaded, and the use of design foundry services is a good business model innovation.

With the rapid development of the domestic IC design industry, mainland China has also become the most competitive battleground for EDA vendors and semiconductor foundries.

The data shows that local fabless companies have maintained a stable cooperative relationship with the semiconductor foundries in mainland China and Taiwan. The top four foundries that respondents believe are most suitable for their products are SMIC, TSMC, Hua Hong NEC, and UMC.

Perhaps the most important role the Chinese government should play is to regulate the domestic industrial environment. Because the “China Core” needs to be developed better, then Chinese IC companies will not only do well in the market, talent/technology, capital, and encouragement policies, but also we need to address opportunities for equal participation in competition and conditions for fair market competition. Standardized management, as well as strong intellectual property protection and other high-tech industry development foundation issues, so as to create a healthy industrial environment. The rapid advancement of IC design companies requires policy support.

The capabilities of local IC design companies are constantly improving. Especially during the post-global recession, it will be a honeymoon period for the rapid development of the domestic IC design industry. Separately, the adoption rates for the 0.13 micron and 0.18 micron processes are still large, but the process below 90 nanometers continues to grow. Despite the high R&D costs for 45nm and below processes, 40nm chips from a few local companies have been taped out, and some companies are still in the 40nm IC development stage. Since high capital investment will deter most local companies, the Journal believes that the 65-nm node will be the main force for local digital IC design in the coming years. From the scale of the chip, 1 million to 2.5 million ASIC gate design projects are more prominent. However, we have noticed that some local companies with strong capabilities have developed tens of millions of chips, and it is estimated that more than 100 million ASIC-gate chips will soon be born in the next year or two. With the breakthrough in IC design capabilities, the strength of local companies has begun to emerge, I believe that will soon see more and more outstanding local companies on the GEM and even on the Nasdaq IPO.