Semiconductor World

Philips separates semiconductor arm!

2005-12-14T23:00:00.000-08:00

Today there is an important announcement from Philips. "Legally" Philips is separating its semiconductor arm. How do you read this news?

The way I read is, they are going to sell it off. There is no way in hell, that with its small portfolio Philips Semiconductor could survive as is so they will merge it with one of the top candidates (ST, Infineon or Freescale). I think it will be European, since Europeans mingle better together. If it is Infineon (which recently spun off memory unit to sell itself to somebody else), it is too bad since both companies are not best in their areas so two bad apples doesn't make a good apple. If it is ST, things are different. I give them more chance.

We will see!

Fingerprint technology companies down the drain!

2005-12-14T00:36:00.000-08:00

According to this article you can easily fool state of the art finger print security devices. The applications based on finger print technology was just starting to take off, I am just starting to see some high end consumer applications as well. (Finger print accessible doors etc) It is a pity, expect some hardcore bleeding in sales and some follow up acqusitions/close downs.

I will post such companies who are building the basic blocks behind this technology if I get time to do some basic research.

Over the long term, the credibility of finger print recognition technology has been comprimised such as its technology. I expect other methods (iris, electrical characteristics of body etc to get impacted badly as well, negative association)

SG

100$ computer

2005-12-14T00:29:00.000-08:00

EE Times reports that Taiwanese Quantas will build the 100$ Laptops.

I would be very curious to see the teardown analysis. 100$ is a nice goal yet I am not sure it is feasible. Let's see!
SG

Wisair Announcement on Wireless USB

2005-12-12T17:48:00.000-08:00

Today, I have seen this anouncement from Wisair. Basically, they are anouncing their Wireless USB Hub concept. Couple things stike me from the article.

1. They are anouncing a chip (or rather two chip solution) that is not compatible with the WiMedia specification. This blows my mind, what is the point? In connectivity, everything is about interoperability, their solution will not work with anybody else's solution.

2. They also say that the current chip has a device side focus, SDIO, MPEG and Compact Flash. This is coming out of a marketing guy who knows nothing about architectures and market segmentation.

Anyway, my impression of Wisair is not very good. We will see what happens to them.

SG's Start up rating: 3 out of 5.

SG.

Venture Capitals and Semiconductor Industry

2005-12-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

Another good article from EE Times. It is nice to see that Intel is pouring cash into the market.

Semiconductor market unfortunately, is very capital intensive. (Boy those tools cost you a lot!) Due to the capital intensive nature of this industry you can basicall NOT bootstrap a semiconductor company. Therefore you depend on VCs.

The problem US faces is the labor costs are huge compared to China or other places in Asia. Therefore, people are going to Asia to start new businesses not the other way around. VCs will be still funding some US companies but that number I am sure is going down.

I think it is time to pack up and go to China :)

SG

Infineon's fabless strategy, a path to sale!

2005-12-08T21:29:00.000-08:00

I am a bit behind on my reading and I have seen this article from EE times.

http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=174403468

Infineon is going fabless. They will not invest in technologies below 90nm. What does that tell you?
When I read the news I tought of, first spin off the memory stuff not go fabless, obviously, they are preparing the company for sale. Who will be the buyer? Philips, ST are likely candidates, European guys usually like each other. The issue is, including ST, all European Semiconductor companies (except notable exceptions such as CSR) are all suffering. A marriage among these will not be a marriage in heaven. I expect all Europeans to consolidate soon. 2008 is my bet!

First and foremost!

2005-12-07T23:58:00.000-08:00

This is my first post. I will give it a shot and let's see what happens!

SG