The revenue of iSTART-TEK (iSTART, TW-6786) and the number of contracts dramatically increased from January 2020 to September 2020, respectively 280% and 30%, compared with that period of the past year. By this meant, both hit record high.
iSTART, the only leading developer in memory testing and repairing technology in Asia, is an upstream company in IC design industry chain. It provides Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools and Intellectual Property (IP) to IC design companies, design service companies, and semiconductor manufacturers to shorten IC design development time and improve SoC yield rate. In addition, the main sources of iSTART’s revenue come from EDA tools, IP licensing fees and maintenance fees.
Moreover, EDA is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems to automate the design process of complex electronics, assisting engineers in designing electronic products, which can greatly shorten the development time of products and improve market competitiveness. System on a Chip (SoC) integrates several chips with different functions into a chip with complete functions, and then package them into an integrated circuit. Further, the essence of Soc is to reduce volume, cost and improve efficiency. However, to integrate several chips with different functions into a SoC, there are certain difficulties in manufacturing, packaging, and testing. Therefore, with the growing demands of smartphones, High-Performance Computing (HPC), Internet of Things (IoT), automotive electronics, and consumer electronics, coupled with the high requirements for SoC’s performance and computing, memory testing and repairing technologies become more important day by day.
Analysts indicate that according to the latest HPC market report by Hyperion Research, a HPC industry analysis organization, the HPC industry will significantly grow in the foreseeable future, which is influenced by AI combined with supercomputing. On top of that, due to the need of computing, the chips of HPC use a large amount of memory, which is expected to drive the increase in the need of memory testing and repairing and in the operation of iSTART.