Fabless companies out-performed IDMs in 2012

Fabless companies out-performed IDMs in 2012

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Fabless semiconductor companies as a group outperformed chip makers with their own fabs again in 2012, according to the latest numbers from the upcoming McClean Report 2013. In advance of the report’s release, IC Insights President Bill McClean shared data showing the historical strength of the fabless sector.

Revenues for fabless chip makers grew six percent in 2012 compared to a fall of four percent for so-called integrated device makers (IDMs), according to the forthcoming report. In April, Mark Bohr, a senior executive with Intel Corp.’s manufacturing division suggested the fabless model was collapsing because it could not keep up with Intel’s advances in areas such as FinFETs.

“In looking at the figures [below], the fabless model is certainly not collapsing through 2012 and is unlikely to as long as Samsung, GlobalFoundries, and TSMC keep up with technology,” said McClean in an email to EE Times. “In fact, fabless companies have performed better, usually much better, than IDMs every year since 1999 except 2010 when the DRAM market surged by 75 percent--The trend is pretty clear to me,” he said.

“If anything, I think the IDM model is collapsing with more and more companies going to fab-lite or fabless models,” he added. “In 2012, fabless IC company sales represented 27 percent of total IC sales, up from only 13 percent in 2002, not really indicative of a collapsing model,” he said.

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TAG:IC Insights Fabless IDM McClean Semiconductors Chips Intel TSMC Samsung GlobalFoundries