After more than 15 years of collaboration with Dr. Eric Esteve and IPnest, SemiWiki has acquired the famed IP reports with Eric Esteve staying on through 2026 to ease the transition. Not only will SemiWiki provide the industry standard Interface IP and Design IP reports, SemiWiki will be expanding the depth and breadth of the coverage. Semiconductor IP has always been a critical enabler of modern semiconductor design and a great source of traffic for SemiWiki.com so this is a 1+1=3 type of transaction.
When I started SemiWik in 2011 I recruited the top two EDA bloggers; Dr. Paul Mc Lellan and Daniel Payne. Paul has since retired and Daniel Payne is still writing for SemiWiki. I covered the foundries and I recruited Eric Esteve to cover Semiconductor IP. Eric was not a blogger when we met but he turned out to be one of the top bloggers on SemiWiki. Eric wrote 427 IP related blogs garnering more than 6 million views and for this I am very grateful.
Eric Esteve:
After starting on CMOS 2 micron in the 80’s by ASIC design I enjoyed multiple projects like supercomputer and Airbus engine motor control (CFM56), later used on Rafale Aircraft and many others to end my technical career as program manager for one of the first System-on-Chip (SoC) in 1995. We didn’t talk about IP, but we were using it. Later I was ASIC marketing manager in charge of North-American market and visited multiple customers, from Orlando to Salt Lake City, Chicago to Atlanta, learning a lot more about human contact. Finally, since 2005, my focus is IP, working for PLDA then Snowbush before creating IPnest in 2009 and developing a customer base of more than 20 customers: Top 3 EDA and many IP vendors (Alphawave, Rambus, CEVA, Arteris, Silicon Creations…) but also TSMC, Intel and most of the hyperscalars (Amazon, Google, Facebook). Most of them are loyal customers year after year for 17 years!
Just before creating IPnest in 2009, I worked for Snowbush in Toronto were I had to create a 5 year business plan and I learned two key lessons: The first was how important it was to manage SerDes design if you have to support interconnects protocol. The second was that the industry needed a source of intelligence about the interface protocol market, because I had to invent it in 2008 to build Snowbush’s business plan. IPnest’s first Interface IP report built in 2009 and sold to my first customers, Synopsys and Cadence, was certainly not perfect, but the quality has constantly improved, thanks to my customers challenging me and providing a feedback loop.
Just a side comment, in 2009, the Interface IP market was valued at $250 million, last year (2025) it was $2.5 billion. The interconnect IP market is booming since 2010, and will continue if you look at AI. You can improve compute by adding GPU or redesign it, but you have to use more powerful interconnect when developing new system and it’s possible to do it as protocols have been created to support it. PCIe 1.0 speed was 2.5 GT/s in 2005, today if you select PCI 7.0, you enjoy 128 GT/s. Clearly, the future of interconnect IP protocols will be essential for building more powerful AI systems!
The Design IP report is simply a tool needed by the IP industry, it’s a market share ranking, by IP category helping IP customers to select their provider and IP vendors to monitor their progress on a fast growing market. Easy to describe, it’s a little bit more complex to build as many players prefer to keep secret their detailed results. Experience is the key word here.
It’s almost the end of a 43-year journey. Deciding to go into a business that nobody knew in 1983 was challenging, it was also a way to be creative and to learn along the way. A special thanks to SemiWiki founder Daniel Nenni who offered me to blog when I was starting IPnest. It helped to pay the bills and, more importantly, to network and be recognized as an IP expert on such a large platform. So I am more than happy to transfer IPnest to SemiWiki. I am confident and trust SemiWiki to be the right place to develop IPnest reports to an even higher level!
SemiWiki:
The entire SemiWiki team wishes Eric a happy retirement and we look forward to continuing his excellence in IP reporting.
Also Read:
AI Booming is Fueling Interface IP 23.5% YoY Growth
Design IP Market Increased by All-time-high: 20% in 2024!
AI Booming is Fueling Interface IP 17% YoY Growth
Semi Market Decreased by 8% in 2023… When Design IP Sales Grew by 6%!
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