Opinion: Are we nearing the peak of custom ASIC adoption?

Editor's take: I have been writing about custom ASICs for many years. At one point, it became clear that some non-chip companies had grown large enough that designing their own chips made more sense than buying merchant silicon. For a time, it seemed like "everyone" was taking this path. We identified over 100 companies developing their own silicon, spanning smartphones, cars, and Wi-Fi access routers. That said, technology moves in cycles, and we may now be approaching the apex of this particular arc of the pendulum. We think it is important to remember that the case for custom silicon is an economic choice, not a technical one. The primary driver of the move to custom silicon is the consolidation wave that has gripped the semis industry over the past 20 years. When every socket had a dozen vendors vying for business, large customers could wrangle control of someone's roadmap to suit their needs. Now that the industry has gone from 2,000 suppliers to something closer to 200, even th ... Read full article.