EDA industry suffers dissapointing start to 2005
The electronic design automation (EDA) industry recorded revenues of $989 million for Q1 of 2005 compared with $995 million for the same period in 2004. Total product revenue, excluding services, was $912 million in Q1 of 2005 versus $918 million in Q1 2004.
“The industry continued to tread water in the first quarter,” said Walden C. Rhines, chairman of the EDA Consortium and chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics. “Continued weakness in North America offset the mild rises in Japan and the Pacific Rim.”
There were some positive signs for the EDA industry however. Minor weakness in IC physical design and verification and computer-aided engineering (CAE) was mostly offset by slight improvement in the semiconductor intellectual property and printed circuit board sectors. Despite the decline in revenues, the EDA industry reported a 6% rise in employment in Q1 2005 to 20,859 from 19,700 reported in the same period last year. EDAs largest tool category, computer-aided engineering, generated revenue of $464 million in Q1 2005, 1% less than in Q1 2004. Printed circuit board and multi-chip module revenue increased 3% in Q1 2005 to $87 million. IC physical design and verification revenue was $279 million in Q1 2005, 2% below the same quarter in 2004.
The EDA industrys semiconductor intellectual property (SIP) revenue totalled $82 million in Q1 2005, a 5% increase over Q1 2004, due in part to new company participation. EDA services revenue was $77 million in Q1 2005, up 1% from Q1 2004. North America, EDAs largest region, purchased $449 million of EDA products and services in Q1 2005, a 3% decline from Q1 2004. Western Europe revenue was essentially flat in Q1 2005 with revenues of $180 million, while revenue from Japan grew 2% over Q1 2004 to $242 million. The rest of the world achieved revenue growth of 2% to $119 million in Q1 2005.
