Thanks to the Taiwan’s Commercial Times for the report：

Having witnessed several major shifts in the semiconductor industry, MICROIP Chairman James Yang, with years of experience in the technology sector, deeply understands the key technologies from chip inception to commercial operations. He has led the industry by building an IP (intellectual property) licensing platform to accelerate processes. In recent years, as the complexity of semiconductor design continues to increase, Yang has once again foreseen another industry revolution—a transition from the Fabless to the Designless era.

Focusing on vertical integration in IC design, MICROIP specializes in the sale of intellectual property rights (IP Mall). In the past, Yang led his team in licensing IP to a U.S. CPU chip design company, setting a rare precedent for Taiwanese companies at the time. Currently, MICROIP collaborates with foundries such as GlobalFoundries, providing IP licensing services, including USB and PCIe.

Rising R&D Costs

Yang points out, “In the past, IC design followed the Fabless model, outsourcing manufacturing and packaging/testing while retaining the design department. MICROIP’s IP offerings alleviate some of the engineers’ pain points. However, today’s chip design complexity has reached new heights, making it too costly and labor-intensive for a single company to support the design work for many different product lines.”

The concept of Designless naturally emerged. Yang analyzes that in the future, IC design companies will only need to retain their core technologies, algorithms, and market channels, while the rest of the IC design work will gradually be outsourced to specialized design service companies. This will not only significantly reduce the cost burden on IC design companies but also allow for more flexible allocation of design resources, enabling rapid response to the ever-changing market demands.

Based on this foundation, Yang has launched the Green EDA business, distinguishing itself in the field of IC architecture design and performance analysis. Yang reveals that Green EDA optimizes the fundamental architecture, saving customers expensive process costs and even helping them achieve advanced process performance using more mature processes. Green EDA’s performance analysis capabilities are globally unique, and Yang proudly mentions that identifying chip performance bottlenecks is extremely challenging. In previous cases, a client required seven engineers and a month to find the issue, but with Green EDA, a junior engineer could solve it in just two hours. This significantly reduces labor costs and shortens the time-to-market, making it a strong incentive for customers.

Trusted by International Giants

In the future, MICROIP will play a key role in supporting Green EDA. Yang discloses that, thanks to Green EDA’s outstanding performance, the company has secured services with several international giants, including Qualcomm, a leading mobile chip manufacturer, earning high praise. Currently, they are working on the next-generation AI chip design for an American telecommunications technology giant, where the IC design company retains control over the core algorithms and product specifications, while Yang’s team handles the design work.

Yang firmly states that the future is the new era of Designless, with a major trend taking shape. “The industry is now looking for design service companies to alleviate the pressure of maintaining their own teams and gradually expand product lines with AI algorithms at the core.” He further analyzes that, just as TSMC and UMC enjoyed the benefits of the fab outsourcing model, the upcoming paradigm shift in chip design will follow a similar pattern, with companies continuously seeking new ways to enhance the division of labor in IC design.

Even companies that are not familiar with semiconductors will be able to design chips tailored to their needs in the future. Yang states, “Targeting the AI chip market, we aim to enable various companies to customize their AI chips.” MICROIP, which started generating profits in 2018, plans to list on the Innovation Board by the end of this year, reflecting investors’ confidence in this business model.

Looking to the future, Yang is full of confidence, succinctly highlighting the current opportunity for Taiwanese companies, “Taiwan has the most advanced process testing grounds, yet EDA is largely controlled by overseas companies. Leading the technical team to reverse this trend, leveraging Taiwan’s advantages, will showcase Taiwan’s local EDA strengths.” The excellent pool of design talent is also a significant asset for Taiwan. He emphasizes, “The Designless trend will bring new opportunities to the global semiconductor industry, and MICROIP will play a leading role alongside its partners in this wave.”