ASIC Suppliers
There are two different types of ASIC suppliers, IDM and fabless. An IDM supplier's ASIC product is based in large part on proprietary technology such as design tools, IP, packaging, and usually although not necessarily the process technology. Fabless ASIC suppliers rely almost exclusively on outside suppliers for their technology. The classification can be confusing since several IDM's are also fabless semiconductor companies.
Read more about this topic: Application-specific Integrated Circuit