Adapteva’s lean semiconductor business model showcased on the GSA Forum

(GSA): There is currently a general consensus among industry analysts, investors and company executives that leading-edge digital chip development projects cost between $30 million and $100 million to develop. This negative view of chip development costs has led to severely decimated levels of VC investments and has even led to some companies scrapping entire product lines1. Today’s chips have a bigger impact on the world economy than ever, and reduced investments in chip product development will eventually have a very negative impact on the economy. China, for one, has realized this and is pouring billions of dollars into their local semiconductor economy2. This article will go through some of the reported data and show that present assumptions regarding chip development costs are very much exaggerated, and that it is possible to design state of the art chips at a fraction of the cost previously reported. Full Article