IC設計公司CAD功能外包之研究

Abstract

隨著半導體技術之日新月異，IC設計公司在CAD設計環境之軟硬體投資也愈來愈龐大，為使設計品質及效率之提昇，IC設計公司通常都設有CAD部門，以統籌管理各項電腦設備及資源，並確保設計環境之正常運作。但因CAD部門在IC設計公司屬於支援部門，不易留住人才，且所用各式軟、硬體設計工具，需隨時汰舊更新，所需維護費用非常沈重。為能專注其核心業務之發展，IC設計公司是否可以將其CAD功能委外，應是值得探討之課題。 邇來由於網際網路應用技術之成熟與普及，興起了一種應用軟體供應商（Application Service Provider, ASP）的行業，藉由上網方式，一些昂貴的IC設計軟體，可經由網路直接下載並使用，其費用可論時計價，同時ASP公司之專業化資訊技術與能力，亦能提供IC設計公司在資料庫安全及網際網路連線上各種加值服務。透過此等ASP公司，IC設計公司更易充分利用網際網路，以發揮統合全球各地資源的優勢，以開發各種集積度更高之系統晶片，因此所謂的“Web-Based IC Design”將是未來IC設計公司工作之一種模式。 本文首先介紹IC設計公司之工作模式及設計流程，所使用之各種軟、硬設備及 CAD部門所擔任之角色，未來產品發展之趨勢及目前遭遇到的幾項問題。設法利用網際網路，將會是有效解決各項問題的方法。接著介紹所謂的“Web-Based IC Design”，其發展沿革及現況，主要是了解時下之ASP業者針對IC設計公司，所能提供的各種服務內容。及IC設計公司，若選擇ASP業者作資訊委外，其取決之條件又將為何？最後，以實際個人所服務之公司在決定是否將CAD功能委外，其決策過程之各種背景因素，及試行階段中所遭遇的各項問題作詳細分析，最後並作一結論。

As the advances in semiconductor technologies, the continuous growth of investment in design environment becomes inevitable for the IC design companies. To exploit the effectiveness of these hardware/software resources to a maximum extent, a CAD Department/Team have to be established inside an IC design company. However, due to the scarce of qualified IT engineers and irrelevance of the company’s core competence. It becomes feasible to consider outsouring this CAD function from fabless IC design companies. The Internet’s broad impact is being experienced by every industry it touches. Wide-ranging benefits are being achieved via the Internet’s ability to eliminate geographic barriers and increase the efficiency of entire business process. As a result, the ASP(Application Service Provider)vendor, which is now in full swing in the electronics industry, can make their products (originally software, but now expanding to hardware) or services available for delivery over the Internet on a pay-by-use basis. Customers escape the hassles of implementing and maintaining an application and pay nothing up-front. Therefore, a new working style, so called ”web-based IC design”, which enable the IC designers to finish their jobs at anytime, anywhere, will be propagated in the future. This thesis is divided into three parts. The first part briefly introduces the IC design flow and primary software tools used by current IC design companies. Some special issues, such as the role of CAD department, the core competence, and the encountering challenges of IC design companies are also discussed. The second part addresses the features and business opportunity of “Web-based IC design”. Lastly, a case study is presented and the conclusion is included.