Fabless semiconductor company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices implemented on semiconductor chips. It achieves an advantage by outsourcing the fabrication of the devices to a specialized semiconductor manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry or "fab." The credit for pioneering the fabless concept is given to Bernie Vonderschmitt of Xilinx and Gordon A. Campbell of Chips and Technologies.
A fabless company may concentrate its research and development resources on the end market without being required to invest resources in staying current in semiconductor technology. For this reason they are also known as IP firms, because their primary product consists of licenses in patents, trade secrets, mask works, and other forms of intellectual property.
