Mentor Graphics and Walden C. Lines Chairman's Semiconductor Market Outlook
Delivering messages through the annual 'Mentor Forum' event

The three key growth areas for IoT semiconductors are data centers, gateways, and IoT nodes. Specifically, these are data center analytics, networking and storage, big digital SoCs, and storage semiconductor memory; gateways for data collection hubs; and IoT nodes, including sensors, actuators, imagers, and transmitters.

Mentor Graphics CEO Walden C. Rhynes has returned. He visits Korea once a year to attend "Mentor Forum 2016," Korea's leading EDA technology event. He is known for expressing his views on the semiconductor market each time he visits.

In his keynote address at an event held on the 25th, he also predicted the growth direction of the IoT semiconductor market. He emphasized that among companies generating revenue, "owners of IoT data will reap the most profits." This means that the number of developers of semiconductor IoT devices and networks for data collection will rapidly increase, and semiconductor design capabilities will spread to thousands of new companies. Therefore, it is predicted that traditional semiconductor companies will attempt to secure data ownership value, and that new semiconductor applications will rapidly increase due to the increase in semiconductor/sensor functions.


▲ Walden C. Lines, Chairman of Mentor Graphics

Chairman Walden also commented on global semiconductor market trends, stating, "The semiconductor industry's development is subject to both economic cycles and industry-specific cycles. Despite this, the semiconductor market will continue to gain momentum as new semiconductor applications, such as the IoT, continue to emerge."

As examples, he pointed out that semiconductor applications are expanding to IoT smart meters, IoT wearables, IoT fitness trackers, and IoT medical wearables, and explained that IoT-based night vision (obstacle detection) systems, drowsy driving monitors, and lane departure warning systems are also being introduced in the automotive market.

He cited the Gompertz Curve (a curve that rises steeply and then gradually approaches a horizontal line) proposed by Benjamin Gompertz in 1832 as a way to more accurately predict the future growth of the semiconductor market.

Semiconductors: Awaiting the Next Wave, the Next Growth Engine

The semiconductor industry's growth has been fueled by new waves of growth, from mainframe computers to minicomputers, PCs, servers, smart home appliances, and smart mobile devices. However, with sales of integrated circuits (ICs) for mobile devices recently slowing, the industry is awaiting the next wave of growth, the next wave.

This means developers of sensors, actuators and transmitters deployed on IoT nodes will need to consider how they can benefit from the new growth of billions of nodes that will make up the new IoT, he said.

Mentor Graphics, a leading EDA company, is continuing its steady growth in line with changes in semiconductor structures, such as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) processes, 3D stacking structures, and FinFET transistors, which have emerged as alternatives, especially in the domestic market that is looking toward the 10nm era. To this end, Mentor Graphics continues to provide support for IP verification programs, thermal analysis, and emulation tools.

Yang Young-in, CEO of Mentor Graphics Korea, said, “With the advent of the IoT era, we are supporting a variety of products that meet the interests and demands of our customers, including emulation and verification, embedded software, automotive semiconductors and networks, and infotainment technology, which are becoming increasingly important.”

Mentor Graphics Korea continuously introduces optimal products tailored to each industry to its target customers through the annual 'Mentor Forum' and related solution briefing sessions. Furthermore, it actively supports customers who adopt its products by providing industry-leading technical support services, helping them reduce design and development time.