'For design teams to keep pace with Moore's law, the IP in these complex designs has to get even more complex,' Heidarson says. 'Also, new types of IP are required to meet the demands of the most complex devices, for instance, IP blocks to support network-on-chip architectures.'

Complex IP products have the potential to generate large revenue streams. However, they require customisation, which means they will face the same problems as design services, such as being hard to scale.