The Virtual Socket Industry Alliance (VSIA) announced on July 10 that it was closing operations. In the article Electronics standards group VSIA to close, many of the initiatives incubated by the VSIA are now looking for homes in other standards organizations like IEEE and The Spirit Consortium. It’s a sad, closing chapter to a well-intentioned concept that never found a constituency.
VSIA started out in 1996 as industry leaders realized that IP reuse was the future and sought to be the standards body for this nascent industry. At that point in time, IP was smaller and less complex. A smart engineer could hang out his shingle and start an IP licensing business if he had the right design at the right time. IP companies sprung up all over the world to participate in the gold rush. Recall that this was the time of dotcom, and the mania for IP was in no way less irrationally exuberant.
IP, like its dotcom brethren, came crashing down in the 2002-2004 timeframe as semiconductor sunk into its longest and deepest recession ever. As semiconductor companies hunkered down for the long cold night, many of the small IP companies died. Surviving were those with business models (EDA-like subscriptions) and royalties that could sustain them during the dark days. As the semiconductor industry came roaring back in 2005, the need for IP was again there but with only a fraction of IP companies to serve it. The survivors got bigger and stronger with fewer competitors to drive down pricing.
All during this, VSIA sat on the sidelines, trying to find a role and establish its relevance. In the end, nobody cared.
