Imec and TSMC expand advanced-node chip design access

What it means for hiring

IC-Link by imec has joined TSMC's Open Innovation Platform Cloud Alliance as the first managed cloud service that supports mixed-partner EDA flows. European fabless chip companies, start-ups and research groups can now use TSMC's advanced process design kits in a secured cloud, with scalable compute and a choice of EDA tools, for chips aimed at AI, communications, automotive and industrial markets. IC-Link has been a TSMC Design Center Alliance member since 2007 and a Value Chain Alliance member since 2009.

The usual obstacle for a small European design team is not the idea, it is the cost and paperwork of getting an advanced PDK, a secure compute environment and a licence mix that works. Removing that makes it cheaper to start a chip company, and more start-ups means more competition for the same designers. Physical design, verification and design-for-test engineers with advanced-node tape-out experience are already scarce in Europe, and most of them are at large semiconductor companies or at the design centres of US and Asian firms. The start-ups this helps will need to hire people who have taken a chip through a TSMC flow before, and they will be hiring from the same places.

Read the original at eeNews Europe .