SAN JOSE, CA -- The EDA Consortium announced that EDA industry revenue fell 10.9% to about $1.3 billion for the third quarter of 2008 and the four-quarter moving average declined 2.8%.

Companies that were tracked saw employment increase in Q3 2008, up 3.4% when compared to Q3 2007. In the third quarter there were 28,176 professionals, up 6% compared to Q2 2008.

Printed circuit board and multi-chip module revenue increased 2.5% when compared to Q3 2007 to $130.9 million. The four-quarter moving average growth rate increased 0.4%.

Services revenue was $104.8 million, up 25% from the same period a year ago. The four-quarter moving average growth rate was up 14%.

Computed aided engineering (CAE) had a 17.6% decrease, with sales of $465.4 million for Q3 2008. The four-quarter moving average growth rate was down 1.9%.

The biggest losses were seen in the IC physical design & verification segment where revenue decreased 22.3% to $298.7 million for Q3 2008. The four-quarter moving average growth rate declined 10.1%.

Semiconductor intellectual property revenue totaled $267.8 million, a 1.8% increase compared to Q3 2007. The four-quarter moving average growth rate was down 1.2%.

“Surprisingly high year-over-year growth in the services segment and a small increase in PCB design tools and semiconductor IP were offset by declines in CAE and IC physical design & verification, resulting in an overall decline for Q3 2008,” said Walden C. Rhines, EDAC chair and Mentor Graphics Corp. CEO and chairman. “While the double-digit drop affected all regions except rest of world, which showed only 1 percent decline, all regions except North America had a positive four-quarter moving average. This illustrates the sharpness of the decline in third quarter.”

The third quarter 2008 by region showed sales in North America of $555.5 million, down 11%. Western Europe had sales of $247.7 million, down 12.9%. Japan had sales of $254.8 million, and was down 15.3%. The Rest-of-World sales figures were $200.5 million, down 0.9%.