System ICs set for double-digit growth in 2010

The global core-silicon market, including ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits), ASSPs (application-specific standard products), and PLDs (programmable-logic devices), appears to have hit bottom and should move toward an expansion in 2010, iSuppli Corp reports.

According to iSuppli, the core-silicon market saw its revenue fall by nearly one-third over the six months leading up to May and is set to see its revenue rise to $19 billion in the third quarter, up 8.3% from an estimated total of $17.6 billion in the second quarter. The revenue increase will mark the first sequential rise since a year earlier, when revenue increased by 6.7% in the third quarter of 2008.

“The core-silicon market hinges on a few major applications for most of its revenue,” says Jordan Selburn, principal analyst for core silicon at iSuppli. “While some areas, most notably desktop PCs and 1G/2G [first-generation/second-generation] mobile handsets, now are forecast to actually suffer a decline in unit shipments from 2008 to 2009, others, such as 3G [third-generation] wireless phones, netbook PCs, and set-top boxes, are still expected to grow, despite the crippled economy.”