Amid Falling DRAM Prices, Emerging System LSIs, Industry Changes Loom Large

摘要

The semiconductor industry is at a turning point. On the one hand the industry is approaching a time when the nanometer will become the technological yardstick. Already, manufacturers are using 0.2μm as the latest silicon technology; next year, it will shrink to 0.1μm. These trends are leading semiconductor makers to enter the system LSI business, and to extend and promote their lineups of proprietary application-specific functional blocks (intellectual property cores) and intermediary software that make up system LSIs. Meanwhile they are establishing and refining distribution systems fpr delivering system LSIs to customers.