Before, after global IC design companies had designed integrated circuits for various uses and of various capabilities, if you were not able to set up your own manufacturing plant you had to let contracts out to major integrated device manufacturers (IDM) for production.
在此之前，全球的 IC 設計公司設計出各種用途、功能的積體電路圖後，若自己無力設廠生產，就必須委託各大整合元件製造廠（IDM）來代工生產。