Today, the electronics industry is much broader and more diversified than it was just a few short years ago. As supply chains have rapidly evolved and electronics manufacturing has spread around the world, the technological background of systems developers has broadened with it.

More than ever before, semiconductor suppliers must support a highly differentiated customer base. Vendors need diversified product and support offerings. For example, developers in the digital consumer space can rarely design a custom chip let alone integrate it into a design with a handful of other devices. They often require not only a silicon solution, but also a wide range of design, test and production skills ranging from supporting EDA libraries and IP to an entire hardware/software reference design to achieve their goals. Other customers working in specific market segments may know more about their applications than anyone else. Frequently, however, they will need the supporting systems' hardware, software and production skills to implement that solution into an end system. Finally, at the more sophisticated end of the customer spectrum, developers of industrial solutions looking for a specific standard or custom IC will often have their own advanced IC and systems design expertise. These customers may need little more than basic product support.

What's needed to support this broadened customer base is a flexible business and customer support model that enables semiconductor suppliers to package solutions tailored for each customer from a portfolio of customer service components, ranging from device support up through hardware and software solutions, and including complete reference designs.

As a first step, semiconductor vendors need to forge close relationships with their customers to identify their unique needs. Only by completely understanding their businesses and the roles they play in their markets can vendors provide them with the exact solutions they need.

Customers in extremely competitive markets like consumer electronics don't have the time or in-house skills to develop their own highly differentiated solutions. For these customers, vendors like NEC Electronics America can bring together our standard product and ASIC portfolio, our extensive experience with design tools, finely tuned technical support, applications software expertise, complete reference designs and highly evolved relationships with distributors and other partners, including third-party IP vendors, EDA companies and design houses, to help customers quickly develop the right solution to meet their markets' needs.

The electronics industry has changed in more ways than one over the past few years. A semiconductor supplier cannot expect to win today's new kinds of customers by following the old paradigm of simply providing a broad array of ICs. Instead, it must play a collaborative role with its customers and partners to deliver a wide range of supporting skills and services to turn today's ICs into tomorrow's solutions.

Toshio Nakajima, President and Chief Executive Officer, NEC Electronics America, Santa Clara, Calif.