Leading global electronics company cuts product cost by 20%

“The Chipworks report gave us benchmarks that helped accelerate our design, resulting in a product launch that was on time and budget. We could not have done it without them.”

                                                                                                                               - Senior R&D Manager

Situation

A global electronic products company led the market for optical reader chipsets used in consumer, business, and industrial applications. Unexpectedly, an upstart manufacturer produced and sold similar chips for significantly less by eliminating bipolar transistors, using a full CMOS design implementation. Facing severe pricing pressure, the leader risked losing customers and market share.

Challenges

• Thwart a serious competitive threat to potentially millions of dollars in lost revenue – fast
• Identify a more competitive and less expensive design, using all CMOS, through in-depth technical analysis

Chipworks Solution

• Reverse engineered the front end of a competitive analog optical processor and delivered a full Circuit Analysis Report in 120 days
• Provided hundreds of detailed hierarchical schematics - essentially a design blueprint
• Explained the competitor’s design concepts, eliminating the need to start at first principles

Results

• Enabled the client to adapt competitive design concepts, cutting months off its own design process
• De-risked the design and launch of a full CMOS solution for under five percent of the development budget
• Regained hundreds of millions in market share in 18 months, more than 800 times its investment with Chipworks