My former-EDA-salesperson friend had just finished his lunch when he leaned back in his chair and said:

"Listen. You’ve been on both sides, in EDA and a customer. Lemme ask you a question. Do you think sales people are really needed?"

To read the rest of this entry, please visit Harry's blog here:
http://theASICguy.com

Sales of inferior consumer electronics formats often swamp superior all-things-being-equal alternatives, for reasons both mysterious and frustrating. For instance, Beta was clearly superior to VHS in side-by-side videocassette quality tests. Apple OS was and is clearly superior to Windows, yet Windows is the dominant format.
Plasma HDTV is the latest victim of this Bizarro World consumer preference.

To read the rest of this entry, please visit Stewart's blog here:

http://www.dtcreports.com/blog2.aspx

By Guest Author Nalini Kumar Muppala

Licensees

ARM licensees comprise big and small IC vendors. They can be broadly classified into two groups: those that build around ARM cores and those that develop their own CPU implementation compliant to ARM instruction set architecture. The former group covers implementation licensees such as TI, Broadcom, and NXP, just to name a few, and foundry licensees. The latter comprises architecture licensees such as Marvell and Qualcomm. The architecture licensees need a lot of expertise and can bring in their know-how to differentiate on performance.

Read the full blog entry at http://www.sramanamitra.com.

By Guest Author Nalini Kumar Muppala

Software and OS

As the adage goes, "Software sells hardware." Apple probably knows this best, but Intel understands it as well. Intel acquired Wind River in an effort to spruce up its offerings outside of the PC market.

For the netbook market at least, Intel has some advantage on the software front. Intel and Microsoft had gone on an extended joyride, establishing the WinTel hegemony. Because of this, most major software vendors develop for x86 architecture. Case in point: Windows – the dominant operating system for PCs — is available on Intel's x86 and thus by extension on Atom. ARM has yet to convince Microsoft to port Windows to the ARM platform. This deficiency has meant that netbook makers opting to provide Windows OS have no choice but to use Intel’s Atom even if they prefer ARM’s performance per Watt.

Read the full blog entry at http://www.sramanamitra.com.

It's been a long time between posts which I blame on the swine flu, but enough of excuses. In less than a week, leading semiconductor technologists from around the world will gather in Baltimore for this year's International Electron Devices Meeting. The venue change is not related to the economy and lower expectations for attendance. The traditional conference hotel is being renovated. But like just about everything except unemployment and bankruptcies this year, I expect the turnout will be down from previous years. That's a shame considering the quality of the papers that IEDM attracts and the hours of work that went into most of the research being presented.

http://semicondr.com/Blog/Entries/2009/12/1_IEDM_2009_Preview_(1).html

By Guest Author Nalini Kumar Muppala

The landscape of computing is undergoing a fundamental change. Mobile computing is gaining ground at the expense of traditional desktop-based computing. Computers are no longer merely productivity tools; they are increasingly being used for communication, networking, and entertainment on the go. To be sure, powerful desktops will still be around; but their use will be limited to developing content, R&D, technology, and businesses. For the average consumer, processing power to meet lifestyle computing needs is now available on mobile phones and other mobile Internet devices such as netbooks (or smartbooks, as Qualcomm and others prefer to market them).

Read the full blog entry at http://www.sramanamitra.com.

Compared with today, in 1990 there were many more computer suppliers, including Digital, NCR, Unisys, HP, and IBM. The typical data center of 1990 used computers from different suppliers with each supplier implementing its own network protocol for connectivity. Interworking and routing data among these diverse protocols was a challenging task. Cisco was one of the first to offer routers to support multiple network protocols. By addressing this complex problem, Cisco delivered high value and could charge a premium for its products.

To read the rest of this entry, please visit Linley Chips In.

By Guest Author Nalini Kumar Muppala

Ms. Mitra recently raised some flags (and the beginnings of a lively reader discussion) by asking if Intel would buy ARM. There has been a lot of discussion lately in the technology press about the prospects of ARM being acquired and about the undeclared war between Intel and ARM. Over the next five parts, we will see why this potential acquisition is important and examine the possibility and impact of such a move.

Read the full blog entry at http://www.sramanamitra.com.

It's officially over. The last U.S. DtA converter box coupon has expired and the world’s largest analog shut-off for high-power broadcasters program comes to a close. DTC’s latest estimate for converter boxes shipped into the market is 46.2 million. (From DTC’s converter box tracking service)

DTC estimates the converter box program generated more than $2.5 billion in retail revenue, which came in pretty handy in the midst of the great recession that had many consumers staying out of the stores. They may have not been high-margin sales, but manufacturers and retailers were plenty happy to move those boxes.

How will box suppliers and retailers replace that revenue?

To read the rest of this entry, please visit Myra's blog here:
http://www.dtcreports.com/blog2.aspx.

Last week, Intel entered into an agreement with AMD and also agreed to pay $1.25 billion to the former for dropping its antitrust lawsuits. According to the latest report from IDC, PC processor unit shipments in 3Q09 rose 23% q-o-q, and Intel increased its share by 2.2% to 81.1% while AMD had a share of 18.7%, a loss of 2%. Let’s take a closer look at the recent performances of AMD and its rival, Nvidia.

Read the full blog entry at http://www.sramanamitra.com.

Internet connected Digital TVs are making their first big splash in the TV market and DTC is forecasting a rapidly growing market in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific markets.

How these TVs will be used by consumers isn’t entirely clear but they are marketed as a way to pull in Internet video content independent of any gated TV services. The result is a competitive threat to gated TV service providers. What is also unclear is how consumer would manage an ever-increasing growing and fragmented line up of programs.

Read the rest of this blog at: http://www.dtcreports.com/blog2.aspx

There were several options for HP to combat Cisco in the networking arena, including Brocade and Polycom. It looks as though they have chosen to go after Cisco front and center by acquiring 3Com. The latter has done a marvelous turnaround in the past three years. The stock has moved steadily up, and now HP is paying a 40% premium to make 3Com central to its networking strategy ($7.9 a share).

Read the full blog entry at http://www.sramanamitra.com.

The two leading chipmakers, Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM) and Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) have recently reported their results. While Qualcomm is enjoying a more stable legal environment after ending its disputes with Nokia and Broadcom and extending its patent deal with Samsung, Broadcom is getting involved in a legal tug-of-war with Emulex. Let’s take a closer look.

Read the full blog entry at http://www.sramanamitra.com.

Disney took the wraps off its Keychest initiative for online digital distribution last week, as the company seeks to temper the effects of the growing slump in DVD sales (down as much as 25% at some studios). While this particular initiative seems unlikely to achieve that outcome, the shift in thinking from device based content security to device independent content security is pretty radical from such a major media player, and bodes well for the future of digital distribution.

To read the rest of this entry, please check out the Weekly Riff at:
http://www.dtcreports.com/blog2.aspx

The Linley Group has recently learned that Marvell has begun shipping production quantities of its Kirkwood Duo processors, the 88F6321, '6322, and '6323. As the name suggests, these are dual-core versions of the company's Kirkwood processors. They fill a narrow gap between the single-core versions and the company's Discovery Innovation line. We estimate that they sell in 10K quantities for $18-$35.

To read the rest of this blog entry, please visit Linley Chips In.

The Image Sensors 2009 conference wrapped up in San Diego recently.
Attendance was very low -- no surprise in these tough economic times. Despite that, there were several good presentations that offered insight into new directions at some companies worth watching -- like Texas Instruments.

http://semicondr.com/Blog/Entries/2009/10/9_RE-cycle.html

I may be the engineer in the family, but my wife is the inventor.

Being an engineer is easy. You go to school to learn well established laws and methods. When you get a job, there are others who can mentor you and show you the ropes. If you need to know more, there are training classes to take. Someone else, usually marketing, decides what needs to be to be designed. All you have to do is follow the rules.

Being an inventor is hard. There is no school for inventing, nobody to teach you the ropes, and no classes to tell you how to do things. You come up with your own idea that has never been done before. You learn on the fly what you need to know from a variety of domains you know nothing about. You build it yourself. There is no such thing as first pass success. Experimentation and refinement are a constant process.

To read the rest of this entry, please visit Harry's blog here:
http://theASICguy.com

Guest author Nalini Kumar Muppala recently finished his in-depth analysis of STMicroelectronics' JV, ST-Ericsson. Today's Tech Stocks post reviews STM’s (NYSE:STM) recent results in the context of Nalini’s assessment and also takes a look at the results of another major semiconductor player, Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN). Sequential growth for some divisions at both companies may indicate that a semiconductor recovery is underway.

Read the full blog entry at http://www.sramanamitra.com.

Continuing its transformation from a low-cost vendor to a high-performance supplier, Samsung has rolled out a pair of new application processors, each containing a 1GHz Cortex-A8 CPU. The S5PC110 targets smartphones, whereas the S5PV210 is designed for netbooks. The chips follow the 65nm S5PC100, a custom version of which powers the iPhone 3GS. The new 45nm processors are due to sample in December.

To read the rest of this entry, please visit Linley Chips In.
http://www.linleygroup.com

According to a preliminary estimate from iSuppli, global PC shipments grew 9.8% sequentially in the third quarter. This week, Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), the world’s largest chip maker with annual revenue of $37.6 billion, reported strong third quarter results driven by the rebound in the PC market. Let’s take a closer look.

Read the full blog entry at http://www.sramanamitra.com.