IPnest

IPnest: Interface IP
(USB, PCIe, SATA, HDMI, DDRn,
MIPI, Ethernet…) survey
Eric ESTEVE, Owner at IPnest

IPnest and IPnest logo are registered trademarks of MARICOL.

All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. MARICOL 2009.
Introduction IPnest
• Massive move from parallel Interconnect to (High Speed) serial
– Started with Ethernet, Firewire and USB in the 90’s
– Based on Packet based Protocols and on High Speed Serial Differential Dual
Simplex signaling with Clock Data Recovery for:
• PCIe, SATA, USB 3.0, Ethernet, Serial RapidIO

• Same type of move from “wide parallel bus” Interconnect to “reduced

parallel bus”, still with a Clock signal sent alongside with the data:
– Started when Rambus has introduced DDR concept in late 90’s
– The bandwidth increase is given as the clock is used at a frequency multiple of
the nominal frequency: Double Data Rate (DDR), Quad Data Rate (QDR) and so
on…
– For Protocols like: HDMI, Hyper Transport , Infiniband *
* Infiniband Link specification is mixing differential serial signaling for the data lanes, and the use
of an external Clock which can be SDR, DDR, QDR…

• We have already shown in (1) that USB, PCIe, SATA, HDMI and DDRn
represents more than 75% of the Interface IP market value in $. We will
focus on these Top 5 interconnects Protocol in this paper.

IP-ESC’09.
Top 5: USB, PCIe, SATA, HDMI, DDRn (I) IPnest
• Universal Serial Bus (USB): most popular serial interconnect protocol
– USB 1.0 released in 1996, USB 2.0 in 2000, USB 3.0 in 2008
– Pervasion of the USB protocol in almost all SC segments: PC, PC Peripherals,
Consumer Electronic, Wireless Communication
– 2 Billion USB ports shipped in 2008!
– IP market weight $60M in 2008
• PCI Express: is replacing legacy PCI since 2004
– Initially introduced inside the PC and to connect PC Peripherals, pervasion
occurred in Networking, Embedded, Industrial, Test & Measurement
– 125 to 150 PCIe IP licenses sold in 2007
– IP market has passed from $18M in 2004 to $40M in 2008
• Serial ATA (SATA) is replacing parallel ATA since 2004
– Dedicated to, and only used in storage applications. More than 80% of the Disk
Drive have been shipped with SATA
– IP market has passed from $10M in 2004 to $22M in 2008

IP-ESC’09.
Top 5: USB, PCIe, SATA, HDMI, DDRn (II) IPnest
• High Definition Media Interface (HDMI) has been invented by Silicon
Image, to replace DVI in Video Application
– Dedicated to Video applications: HDTV, Set Top Box, BluRay Disk Players,
Digital Camcorders, also used in PC and Mobile Phones
– 192 Million devices shipped with HDMI ports in 2007, growing to 770 million
by 2012
– IP market, strongly dominated by Silicon Image, has passed from $10M in
2005 to $33M in 2008
• Dual Data Rate (DDR) has been invented by Rambus to interface with
external DRAM
– Dedicated to, and only used to control external memory applications.
– Every System on Chip (SoC) integrates a CPU core, thus a DDR Controller to
manage external memory
– IP market, dominated by Rambus and Denali, was $18M in 2004, passed to
$31M in 2008

IP-ESC’09.
The Market: 2004-2007 Initial Growth IPnest
Top 5 Interface IP 2004-2007

70
65
60
55

Revenue (US$M)
50
45
2004 40
2005 35
30
2006
25
2007
20
15
10 2007
5 2006
0
2005
USB
PCIe 2004
DDR
HDMI
SATA

• Wired Interface IP market weighted $158M in 2004 (Gartner)

– Top 5 was weighting $94M, or 60% of Total, in 2004
– Top 5 grew up to $195M, or 77% of Total, in 2007 with a 27% CAGR

• Wired Interface IP market weighted $252M in 2007 (Gartner)

– CAGR 2004-2007 was 16.7%

IP-ESC’09.
 2008-2009 Revenue stagnation, Top 5 Protocols
evolution IPnest
• Stagnation of Wired Interface IP market for 2008-2009 period is
a success… compared with SC decline (20% in 2009)
– IP vendors focused on Interface IP claim no revenue decline for 2009, some
have even seen growth!
– During the period, we will see growth for Protocols like DDR, USB, HDMI (?)

• Dominant position of the Top 5 Protocols has been consolidated,

ALL have introduced a new Release:
– Release of USB 3.0, data rate improved by 10x (5 Gbps vs 480 Mbps)
– PCIe Gen-2 (5 Gbps), released in 2007 has been widely adopted, Gen-3 is
about to be released (8 Gbps and double of bandwidth)
– HDMI V1.4 released in 2009, new features (Ethernet)
– SATA II (3 Gbps), released in 2007 has been widely adopted, release of
SATA III (6 Gbps) offer 100% more bandwidth
– DDR3 has been released offering twice the transfer rate of DDR2

IP-ESC’09.
 2010-2013 Back to Growth again! IPnest
Market Data based on a Top 5 IP2009-2013

forecast available in :
“Wired Interconnect IP 120

Market Survey 2004- 110

100

IPnest

Revenue (US$M)
2013" from 90

80
2009
70
2010
60
2011
50
2012
40
2013
30

20 2013
2012
10
2011
0
2010
USB
HDMI 2009
DDR
PCIe
SATA

• Wired Interface IP market estimated flat at $250M in 2009 (IPnest)

– Top 5 to grow from $202M in 2009 to$339M in 2013 with a 14% CAGR
– Top 5 consolidate at 81% of Total, in 2013, compared with 77% in 2007

• Wired Interface IP market forecasted at $417M in 2013 (IPnest)

– CAGR 2009-2013 at 12.4%

IP-ESC’09.
 2004-2013 Wired IP market by Protocol IPnest
Interface IP 2005 - 2013

USB 1-2-3 PCIe 1-2-3 SATA1-2-3 DDRn HDMI Others

Revenue ($M)

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Market Data based on Gartner for 2004 to 2008 and a forecast for 2009 to 2013, available in : “Wired Interconnect IP Market Survey 2004-2013" from IPnest

IP-ESC’09.
 The IP Vendors: 2008 Revenues IPnest
Market Data based on IP vendor ranking 2008

various sources, mostly USB PCIe SATA DDR HDMI Others

from IP vendors, 70

compiled by IPnest
65
60
55
50

Revenue (US$M)
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Synopsys Silicon Image Rambus Chipidea Snowbush Fraraday plda ARM

• We will limit the study to the Top 3 + 1 “outsider”

– Synopsys, Silicon Image and Rambus, plus Virage Logic, aggressive
new comer
– Chipidea has been sold to Synopsys in May 2009

IP-ESC’09.
Virage Logic IPnest
• Virage Logic is technology leader in Physical IP: library and
Memory, going into a strong diversification.
• Support this diversification through successive acquisitions:
– Ingot Systems in Aug 2007 for DDR Controller IP
– AMD portfolio of PHY for PCIe, HDMI and MIPI in January 2009
– ARC in November 2009 for Processor core IP
– Wide portfolio of “CMOS libraries, IP blocks and SoC architecture” from NXP
in October 2009, and the transfer of 160 designers
• They were not ranked by Gartner for 2008 revenue in Interface
IP, except $1.2M for DDR
– Strategy is aggressive, supported by strong communication, but
– AMD PHY IP has been developed for SOI technology
– Digest IP design team from NXP could be challenging (MIPS acquisition of
Chipidea failed due to cultural gap)
• Virage could be part of the Top 3 IP vendors for wired Interface
IP in 2013… if they can overcome the many challenges

IP-ESC’09.
Rambus IPnest
• Technology leader! Inventor of the new memory Interfaces now
massively used (DDRn, XDR…)
– Business model of “Technology licensing” by opposition of a pure play IP
vendor “IP licensing”
– Most of their revenue for 2008, or $142M, are not reported in the IP sales
(except for DDR IP)
– Virage would be the undisputed leader in Interface IP as ranked by Gartner
if they decide to report their revenue as IP sales
– Virage’s business model strongly based on royalties, they are very sensible
to the SC market production changes

• The result of their positioning is the report of losses during the

8 consecutive quarters
– But they may recover by closing only one deal with a memory manufacturer

• Virage Logic invents when the IP vendors selling to the

mainstream harvest on the technologies developed by Virage

IP-ESC’09.
Silicon Image IPnest
• Technology leader! Inventor of the Digital Interfaces Protocols for
Video: DVI and now HDMI
– Their business model is clearly a mix between IP vendor, technology licensing and
ASSP vendor
– The goal is to maximize the return on the investment made to develop innovative
technologies. Example of HDMI:
• Silicon Image sells ASSP based on HDMI interface
• They sell IP license for HDMI Controller and PHY
• They collect royalties through ‘HDMI Licensing LLC” 100% owned
• Any chip developer has to valid the IC… going to an Authorized Testing Centers
(ATC) where they can submit their products for compliance testing
• This business model has a drawback: it sounds like using a dominant position to
get maximum cash from their customers (does not sounds like partnership!)
• Other drawback is that it heavily relies on royalties, when production goes down
like in 2009, Silicon Image suffers a lot more than the others IP vendors
• Nevertheless, Silicon Image should stay the undisputed leader on HDMI IP
market (thanks to HDMI Licensing LLC), growing with 22% CAGR to reach
$75M in 2013

IP-ESC’09.
Synopsys IPnest
• Pure play IP vendor, diversification in Interface IP through
successive acquisition of small and focused IP vendors
– True for USB, PCIe, DDR and HDMI!
– Leader in USB IP with more than 85% market share
– Leader in PCIe IP with 40% market share
– Well positioned in DDR as Rambus is not chasing mainstream, Synopsys is the
leader behind Rambus… who may focus on most advanced memory interfaces
– Now just entering the HDMI IP market (Chipidea)
• Key strengths:
– sales team able to reach almost every design team in the world, thanks to EDA
tool
– Strong focus on Interface IP, one stop shop concept, integrated solution
• Who or what could prevent to stay the market leader for Interface IP
(USB, PCIe, SATA, DDR, HDMI) in 2013 like in 2008?
• One Stop Shop concept was developed by CAST on commodity IP,
Synopsys apply it to the highly specific & complex Interface IP market

IP-ESC’09.
The Winner is... IPnest
• The SC mainstream market, Fabless and IDM!
– Don’t need to develop highly complex functions
– May decide to source IP based on protocols developed by technology
leaders or Standardization Organization (PCISIG, SATA, USB…)

• Rationalization for IP sourcing (mid term)

– Sales of Integrated IP (PHY + CTRL), strong trend in 2007-2009
– Go further in the food chain with join sale of the S/W drivers
– One stop shop for highly complex IP, not only commodities, is the
trend for the next 2-3 years

• Next challenge for the Interface IP market (long term)

– Not the growth: 12% CAGR for the next 5 years
– Relationship between IP vendors and foundries will be interesting to
monitor in the 2012-2015 period!

IP-ESC’09.
 Thanks! IPnest
•
“Wired Interconnect IP Survey 2004-2013, 10 years of growth”
On sale on IPnest web:

http://www.ip-nest.com/index.php?page=wired

Don’t forget: High Quality IP delivers Happiness!

Eric ESTEVE – Owner IPnest

IP-ESC’09.