Switzerland - the fastest growing<br>chip design industry

According to The number of independent chipless, fabless and IC design houses i Europe is increasing. Despite the fact that there has been a number of acquisitions and mergers lately there are almost 13 percent more start-ups this year than it was in 2005. "The UK position is no surprise and Israel has always been a source of new company generation, but Germany and France, despite their size, lag behind the leading two by some margin," Chris Ryan, semiconductor industry analyst, Future Horizons, told electronicsweekly. According to Future Horizons, Switzerland is the fastest growing country within this kind of industry. "It has seen the largest percentage new design company growth in recent times," Ryan added.