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Introduction
Intellectual property (IP) consists of many different types of things including printed material (books, magazines, journals, …), music (sheet, recordings), movies, software and semiconductor content. The owners of the rights to this IP view it as an asset and would like to make money from the time, talent, effort, creativity and investment that were used to create it. They will take measures to protect it through copyrights, patents, employee agreements, licensing arrangements, lawsuits and so forth. The owners of a piece of IP may sell all of their rights or some of their rights, e.g. author to publisher, screenwriter to producer, producer to distributor for European movie rights. In the final analysis money is made when the public directly or indirectly pays to purchase, rent, view or use the IP. Sometimes it is advertisers who subsidize a presentation in exchange for access to eyeballs as in the case of broadcast TV and search engines. IP protection requires a system of laws and the willingness and ability of governments to enforce these laws. Many nations trail the US in providing IP protection.
Decades ago when I was young, you could purchase books, records and movies. You could then give them to another or loan them to one or more persons over time. Libraries also loaned material to their clients. This use by multiple persons of a single copy undoubtedly reduced the number of copies actually sold. However, there was only one physical copy. Back then you could Xerox a book or magazine but the time and expense to do so made it largely impractical. I remember having a large, about 50 pound tape recorder. But I never thought of recording music from someone else's records. The cost of the blank tape, the time and the likely quality of the resulting recording were considerations. Many early PC programs required that a master disc be in the drive as much to overcome memory limitations as for security purposes.
Music
Over time the technology for copying has progressed exponentially. We see this most dramatically in the music industry. With the advent of file sharing program one could share the collective music libraries of millions of people and freely download just about any song or artists you could think of. The most widely used peer-to-peer file sharing program was Napster founded in 1999 by an 18 year-old college drop out, Shawn Fanning.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed suit for copyright infringement and demanded $10,000 for every copyrighted song traded using Napster. The rock band Metalica joined the suit. In the lawsuit Napster argued that since the files were never in Napster's possession it was doing nothing illegal. On March 5, 2001, RIAA won a temporary injunction, which ordered Napster to stop trading copyrighted music over its network. In July 2001, despite attempts to overturn the court-imposed shutdown ruling, Napster had to close the doors on its MP3 file-trading network to comply with the court decision. On September 24, 2001, Napster agreed to pay over $26 million to settle its legal battle with songwriters and music publishers, and an additional $10 million against future royalities. Napster declared bankruptcy and its assets were acquired by Roxio in November 2002. Roxio merged it with PressPlay, another acquisition, and began offering a portable music service.
Today Napster offers three ways to obtain music: as a member, Napster on the Go and the Napster Light Music Store where you can purchase a song “ala carte” for $0.99 or an album from $6.95. With a Napster subscription consumers can enjoy unlimited on-demand streaming and unlimited tethered downloading of songs to the hard drives of three PCs for as long as they maintain their subscription. Membership in Napster costs $9.95 a month.
Shawn Fanning, founder of Naspter, founded SNOCAP, Inc. in 2002. The firm is an end-to-end provider of digital licensing and copyright management services for the digital music marketplace. SNOCAP's content registry and clearinghouse enables record labels, publishers and individual artists to sell their entire catalogs through peer-to-peer networks and online retailers.
In October 2001 Apple introduced the iPod which for a few hundred dollars enabled one to store and play up to 1,000 songs (current version ~15,000 songs) on a highly portable device. Apple has since introduced several additional models, namely the iPod Mini, the iPod Shuffle, the iPod Photo and the iPod Nano. Essentially, these offer lower capacity and smaller physical size for less money. Apple has a website called iTunes, launched in 2003, where for a fee one can download over 2 million songs (99 cents each), 25,000 podcasts and 11,000 audiobooks to a computer which can then be transferred to the iPod. Materials from existing CD and other sources can also be transferred to an iPod. In the last quarter Apple shipped 6,451,000 iPods, a 220 percent growth over the year-ago quarter. This generated $1.2 billion in revenue. This compares to shipments of 1.2 million CPUs for $1.6 billion. A number of firms have introduced similar devices.
Another new and emerging area for the music business is cellphones. In 2004 the sell of personalized ringtones for a few dollars apiece amounted to $4 billion. Initially, tunes were synthesized. Polyphonic ringtones can create multiple tones and/or notes simultaneously. The synthesized version has been succeeded by master tracks or true tones, which are compressed snippets of an actual recorded song typically 25 seconds long. Polyphonic ringtones are essentially cover versions of songs: aggregators must pay royalties to the publisher, who then pays the songwriter. But since master tones are compressed versions of original recordings, record labels are entitled to collect a fee. IDC forecasts that the total volume of ringtone sales will approach the 100 million mark by 2009, and that by then, 4 in 10 wireless subscribers and customers will be ringtone purchasers. Master track or sampled ringtone sales have exploded in the past year, and IDC estimates that by 2009 nearly two-thirds of all ringtone revenue will be generated in this category.
Xingtone is a startup whose application bridges personal computers and mobile phones, empowering Internet users to utilize their MP3 and CD libraries to create custom ringtones and upload content, such as images and games, to their own wireless handsets. Ringtone Maker sells for $19.99, $9.95 for additional copies. Xingtone does not work with files that are digital rights-protected.
Apple and Motorola are working on a deal to put iPod technology on Motorola cell phones. Nokia has inked a deal with Loudeye to create a music platform that will let network operators build their own music services on top of Nokia phones. EMI, Sony, and Universal all have divisions devoted to distributing some of their artists' work as mobile ringtones. Even individual artists are in on the act. Alain Levy, CEO of EMI Music, for one, has said that digital sales could be 25% of his company's total in five years, with cell-phone downloads and subscriptions making up a big chunk.
The music industry has been turned on its head by new technology and yet technology may prove to be its savior by providing different types of end user experiences and therefore different opportunities for revenue.
The event that triggered this editorial was the content protection or digital rights management effort undertaken by Sony BMG, a joint venture between Sony Corporation of America and Bertelsmann A.G. and the second largest music label.
In November Mark Russinovich, a security expert with Sysinternals, discovered that Sony BMG had installed a hidden rootkit on some (~50 titles) of its music CDs. A rootkit is commonly used to circumvent antivirus software and take over control of a computer. Common PC monitoring mechanisms cannot detect them. They can capture passwords and message traffic to and from a computer. They can allow a hacker to provide a backdoor into a system. The software was developed by First4 Internet Ltd, a UK based developer of content management technologies providing Digital Asset Management, Copy Protection and Image Content Filtering solutions.
Sony's explanation for using this technology was: “The software was intended simply to prevent copying beyond the level appropriate for personal use. The content protection software was designed to enable you to listen to the music while the disc is in your computer, move the music tracks to your computer in a variety of file formats and make a limited number of backup copies of the audio on the disc. It also permits you to move the music files from your computer to compatible portable devices. “
There has been a considerable amount of uproar over this issue. In response to pubic outcry Sony BMG has taken several actions. On November 18 they announced a mail-in exchange program for the same CD without the XCP software using pre-paid UPS shipment. They have pulled 4.7 million copy-protected disks from the retail shelves. They have posted a fix on their website with the statement: “This Service Pack removes the cloaking technology component that has been recently discussed in a number of articles published regarding the XCP Technology used on SONY BMG content protected CDs. To alleviate any concerns that users may have about the program posing potential security vulnerabilities, this update has been released to enable users to remove this component from their computers.”
Critics have labeled the software spyware. Microsoft has declared the program as a security risk. Software security companies like Symantec have alerted its users. Several lawsuits have been filed. This demonstrates the trickiness of trying to protect one's intellectual property rights without offending customers and drawing the wrath of various advocacy groups.
Television and Movies
When I was young and wanted to see a movie I could go to the theater and buy a ticket to see a current film or watch old, often very old, movies on TV supported by commercials. Cable TV and the explosion in the number of channels give today's audience significantly more choices. Cable companies charge a monthly subscription fee for basic capabilities and extra for the “movie channels” and pay-for-view for recent films and events. People can record what they watch on a VCR and more recently using TiVo or a DVR (Digital Video Recorder). They can create a library which they can watch when they choose or loan to friends.
While one can record a show for future viewing even without being present, in the past one was limited to the schedule, i.e. what was being shown when. Today some cable companies, e.g. Comcast, have begun to offer on-demand service. You can select from hundreds of films and programs to view multiple times over a 24 period with the ability to pause, rewind and fast forward. The technology is here, the portfolio will only grow.
On October 12, 2005 Apple announced video versions of its iPod: 30GB for $299 and 60GB for $399. The device displays album artwork and photos, and plays videos including music videos, video Podcasts, home movies and television shows. The new iPod holds 150 hours of video for display on a 2.5 inch screen. Apple's iTunes Music Store now features 2,000 music videos, 6 Pixar shorts and select ABC and Disney television shows, e.g. “Desperate Housewives”, “Lost” and “That's So Raven”, for downloading for $1.99. While the selection is currently limited, one can easily see the potential.
In late September Disney announced Mobile ESPN, a mobile sports communication device and service that delivers ESPN anytime, anywhere. The service's ultimate mission is “to literally serve avid sports fans with one-touch, real-time access to immersive and personalized sports content from ESPN.” Nationwide rollout of Mobile ESPN is set for Sunday, February 5. Mobile ESPN will operate as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) utilizing Sprint's nationwide network for wireless voice and data service. It will take advantage of the Sprint EVDO (Evolution Data Optimized) service.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its international counterpart, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), estimate that the U.S. motion picture industry loses in excess of $3 billion annually in potential worldwide revenue due to piracy.
Pirate optical discs, which include Laser Discs (LD), Video Compact Discs (VCD) and Digital Versatile Discs (DVD), are inexpensive to manufacture and easy to distribute. In 2000, over 20 million pirate optical discs were seized, and by comparison, 4.5 million videos were seized worldwide in the same period. The sources for illegal coping include legal copies, theft from a theater, duplicator or editing firm, camcorder recordings taken in a theater, signal stealing from a cable company, legitimate advance copies used for screening and marketing purposes and so forth. In a well publicized case an actor gave a “friend” 60 screener tapes over a year claiming he was never paid any money for the movies. It is now common for films to be available on the Internet near and even before the premier date and certainly long before the company has a DVD release.
In 2004, over 1,800,000 illegal movies and 3,059 duplicating machines (VCR, DVDR & CDR burners) were seized in North America. The MPA operates anti-piracy programs in 13 countries in the Asia/Pacific region, estimating that its Member Companies lost in excess of $718 million in potential revenue regionally in 2003. The predominant piracy threat in Asia-Pacific is optical disc piracy.
Again technology has on the one hand created a market and a delivery capability for pirated video content and on the other hand created an opportunity to market existing and future content in new ways.
Software
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is an organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world. Established in 1988, BSA has programs in more than 80 countries worldwide. BSA educates consumers on software management and copyright protection, cyber security, trade, e-commerce and other Internet-related issues. In 2004 BSA and IDC (International Data Corporation) performed a study of global trends in software piracy. Based on 7,000 interviews their report estimates that PC software piracy amounted to 35% of the total market in 2004. In 24 countries, the piracy rate exceeded 75 percent. Just over a third of the countries studied had a piracy rate under 50 percent. In North America the piracy rate was 22% and in China it was 90%. The total value of pirated software in 2004 was around $34 billion, of this $6.6 billion was in the US and $3.5 billion in China. At flea markets, particular in Asian countries, one can purchase counterfeit versions of well known US software programs.
According to the Computer Software Copyright Act "It is illegal to make or distribute copies of copyrighted material without authorization. The only exception is your right to have a backup copy for archival purposes. You may possess one copy of the software for personal use, and one backup copy of the software. No other copies may be made without specific authorization from the copyright owner.”
Software firms have used physical devices (dongles) and license management systems for node locked and network licensing to provide security against illegal usage and copying. These tools are now fairly sophisticated allowing for the control of the use of differing numbers of multiple products including evaluation units, beta versions and different versions. However, there are firms that sell devices or software to circumvent these security controls. Software firms often employ an activation scheme that requires the end user to contact the vendor to obtain an encrypted key to use the software.
In the early eighties when Autodesk introduced AutoCAD, its 2D drafting package, without software protection. CAD systems at that the time (Cadam, ComputerVision, Calma, Applicon) had been selling at over $100K a seat for combined hardware and software. AutoCAD ran on the IBM PC and sold for $1,000. Despite the enormous difference in price, the piracy of AutoCAD was rampant. In 1998 Autodesk established its Piracy Prevention Program. Since then they have aggressively gone after software pirates. In testimony before Congress Carol Bartz, Autodesk CEO, characterized the Internet as the “Home Shoplifting Network.” Today Autodesk has more than $1 billion in annual revenue mostly through dealer and VAR sales.
In the early days application software was sold as a perpetual license to use. The adjective “perpetual” is a misnomer. Over time end users will migrate by desire and by necessity to newer computers and newer operating systems or newer versions of operating systems which are not support by the application. The application will not be compatible with later versions of itself and with other programs. This makes it impractical to use a particular version of an application for more than a few years at best. Today time based licenses (TBLs) are in vogue.
In the early days software was licensed to a specific machine, i.e. node locked. A popular alternative became network licensing, where multiple users have the ability to use a software module up to a maximum number of simultaneous users. This gives the customer more flexibility in the use of the software. Initially network licenses were more expensive per user than node locked licenses. This pricing differential has largely disappeared. Under network licensing the software module might run on the individual user's machine or on a server somewhere in the network. In the early days a network was a local area network connecting several computers and devices within a building. Today a given firm's network can be and is likely to be global with US firms having offshore operations in places like India and China. Given the time difference between these countries, a single software license could be used in two different geographies.
A customer's use of software applications is not a constant. Usage will vary depending upon the number of projects, the number of people assigned to each project, the state of each project and even the time of day. The number of people within a company or at a given site wishing to use a given software module at any given time will vary significantly. The IT organization will be pressured to provide an environment to meet peak demand. The customer would like to pay for its actual usage rather than for maximum potential usage. Users may be prevented from using software when they want because the number of concurrent users exceeds the maximum allowed by the license. If a company lays off a number of employees, software licenses may go unused becoming shelfware. Of course their offices, furniture and computers will also go unused.
During the dot.com boom many startups positioned themselves as Application Service Providers (ASPs) offering their own specific applications hosted on their machines at their facilities accessible over the Internet or an Intranet. Other firms offered a general capability as a way of supporting outsourcing. Potential customers had concerns about the security of their data and about speed. The benefits were debatable.
If an individual needs a computer of a certain configuration (CPU, memory, disk, graphics, …) in order to run say 10 applications, what savings would occur if he could access 2 or 3 of those applications over the Internet? How much savings would a firm employing such individuals reap in terms of its IT costs (hardware, software, support)? In the third world, however, where computers are scarce, one can imagine a device with a keyboard, small display and Internet access serving as a low cost alternate to providing a computer.
On November 16th U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan unveiled the first working prototype of the $100 laptop at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, Tunisia. The laptops are powered with a wind-up crank, have very low power consumption and will let children interact with each other while learning. They have a 500MHz processor, with flash memory instead of a hard drive which has more delicate moving parts, and four USB ports. They link up and share a net connection through "mesh networking" and run the Linux operating system. It is the central project of the nonprofit One Laptop per Child (OLPC) association, a nonprofit organization created by faculty members from the MIT Media Lab.
We now see ASP coming back as Software On-demand or as SaaS (Software as a Service). An example of a company that has had considerable success in this arena is Salesforce.com. The firm, founded in 1999, offers on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) services. They have 351,000 subscribers at 18,700 companies. Their revenue in the last quarter was $82 million. The firm's annual revenues have roughly double for the past several years. They have become a competitor to CRM industry leader Siebel Systems, who has introduced their own version of CRM OnDemand. A second example would be NetSuite Inc., a provider of on-demand enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) application software for small and medium-sized businesses.
A second event that triggered this editorial was Microsoft previewing on November 1 two new Internet-based software services - Windows Live and Microsoft Office Live - designed to deliver rich and seamless experiences to individuals and small businesses. Microsoft sees Google as its major competitor and wants to be in a position to compete more directly. Google generates revenue by providing advertisers with the opportunity to deliver measurable, cost-effective online advertising that is relevant to the information displayed on any given page. In the last reported quarter Google had revenues of $1.6 billion, a 96% increase year-over-year. Net income was $529 million. Its market capitalization is 10 tens that of GM or Ford.
Windows Live is a set of personal Internet services and software designed to bring together in one place all of the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with more safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web. Windows Live will primarily be delivered free to users and supported by advertising, but subscription and transaction-based services also will be available.
Office Live is a new set of Internet-based services for growing and managing a business online. The initial Office Live offerings are targeted at the approximately 28 million small businesses worldwide that have fewer than 10 employees. These services can be used independently but also integrate with Microsoft Office programs. Office Live Basics helps a small business establish an online Internet presence including a domain name, a Web site with 30 MB of storage and five Web e-mail accounts at no charge through an advertising-supported model. Office Live also provides a set of subscription-based services with more than 20 business applications to help automate daily business tasks.
EDA
In the EDA world there was a switch away from perpetual licenses to time based licenses (TBL). This had a significant impact on EDA vendors because revenue for perpetual licenses was recognized as the time of purchase whereas revenue for TBLs was recognized ratably, i.e. over the time period of the license. This is true regardless of when the customers actually pay for the licenses. Since this shift occurred over a relatively short time, EDA vendors saw a significant drop in their recognized revenue compared to prior years. Synopsys in reporting its revenue for its fiscal 2005 just ended stated that lower revenue in fiscal 2005 reflects the company's shift to an almost fully ratable license model initiated in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004. TBL does, however, have an advantage of making future revenue more predictable and more even.
There have been attempts in the EDA industry to provide products over the Internet. In 1998 John Cooper, the co-founder of pc-board and IC design-router company Cooper & Chyan Technology, started EDAconnect.com, Inc. This firm has its EDAstore concept where firms could rent third-party vendors' tools on a per-month basis. Customers license and download tools from the Web site and run them locally on their own PCs or workstations.
Another example in the EDA world is E*ECAD. The firm has acquired the exclusive pay-per-use distribution rights to the range of ECAD tools developed by numerous vendor partners, including Aldec, Silicon Metrics, Silvaco and others. Pay-per-use application usage is tracked and charges are levied against a user's E*ECAD account as they are incurred. Monthly, Yearly and Perpetual Subscription licensing models are created to provide a full spectrum of licensing models for various customer scenarios. The Rent-to-Own program enables users to apply a portion of their Pay-Per-Use expenditures toward a perpetual license. Customers establish a running account, pre-paying for E*ECAD services. E*ECAD was founded by Dr. Ivan Pesic who was also the founder of Silvaco International.
Another example is Barcelona Design. The company formed in the late nineties claimed breakthrough analog synthesis technology, and pioneered a Web-based model through which designers would access the technology on a pay-per-use basis. Customers would license Barcelona's intellectual property along with its synthesis tool, then use the tool to optimize circuits for a specific process. The company which had raised over $40 million in financing shut down in March of this year.
Larger EDA companies have also flirted with this type of offering, for example DesignSphere Access from Synopsys and Avanti.
It is clear that changes in the way end users listen to music, watch TV and movies, and communicate via cell phones has already had a significant impact on the consumer electronics industry and therefore on semiconductor companies and their EDA suppliers. The semiconductor companies have shifted their focus from telecommunications toward consumer electronics. This shift requires a change in the tools that EDA vendors develop. For example the need for lower power chips to support longer battery life for mobile devices has spurred many EDA startups offering power management tools, power grid design tools, and power simulation software as described in recent editorials. The question is whether some of the other trends mentioned earlier in this editorial will also have an impact on the EDA industry.
We know that
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1. the younger generation has flaunted copyright laws on a massive scale
2. the younger generation has experienced free legal software like Google which undercuts their perceived value of software 3. growth in EDA is coming from countries with little history in the area of intellectual property protection 4. growth in EDA is coming from countries where all costs (labor, facilities, transportation) are substantially lower than the US and Europe 5. global development operations follow the sun enabling a single piece of code to be used around the clock 6. Internet speed will increase while security hopefully will improve 7. pricing for high end mechanical CAD products have plunged over time forcing major players to expand their product portfolios into product data management and collaboration along with associated services. |
On the other hand it would be naïve to think that the changes that have happened in other industries will not have some parallels in the EDA industry possibly in the way software is price, packaged or delivered.
The top articles over the last two weeks as determined by the number of readers were
Leakage Power Optimization With Dual-Vth Library In High-Level Synthesis - Technical Paper from DAC 2005 The paper presents a heuristic algorithm for leakage power optimization based on the maximum weight independent set problem. A dual threshold voltage (Vth) technique is used to reduce leakage energy consumption in a data flow graph.
Texas Instruments Introduces New Web Design Tailored for Electronic Design Engineers The new Web design makes it easier and quicker for design engineers to access product information and support materials critical for their high-performance designs.
Your ASIC design better work on silicon the first time! Designs which are not functionally verified beyond a string of doubt, ensuring that the design implementation conforms exactly to the architecture specifications and will work under all possible scenarios of usage at all times, never see their day on silicon. An adequately verified ASIC design entails a mandatory spending of at least 50% of the total design effort on design verification.
Chipworks first inside Microsoft's Xbox 360 silicon Chipworks monitors advanced semiconductors and systems, and creates detailed reports of what is inside technology. Their customers use this information to maintain their competitive advantage, benchmark their innovations and improve their business costs.
Structured ASIC to Solve Cost and Design Issues in the IC Industry The structured ASIC cut the nonrecurring engineering (NRE) expenses by more than 85.0 per cent in derivative chips and is set to become a crucial element in the upcoming deep sub-micron (DSM) designs.
Synopsys Posts Financial Results for Fourth Quarter and Full-Year Fiscal 2005 For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2005, Synopsys reported revenue of $254.8 million, an 11 percent increase compared to $230.6 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004. Revenue for fiscal year 2005 was $991.9 million, a decrease of 9 percent from the $1.09 billion in fiscal 2004. Lower revenue in fiscal 2005 reflects the company's shift to an almost fully ratable license model initiated in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2004. See upcoming EDA industry quarterly report.
Other EDA News
Memory Access Optimization Through Combined Code Scheduling, Memory Allocation, and Array Binding in Embedded System Design - Technical Paper from DAC 2005
Submissions Now Accepted for DAC- ISSCC-Sponsored Student Design Contest
Logic Soft Errors in Sub-65nm Technologies - Design and CAD Challenges - Technical Paper from DAC 2005
FyreStorm Uses Sequence's Low Power Tools for its Mobile Power Management Solution; FyreStorm Slashes Power Significantly with PowerTheater; Uses CoolTime for Power Grid Sign-Off
Silicon Canvas Offers a Complete Analog Design Platform with the Release of Laker ADP
austriamicrosystems Releases New Version of Design Kit for the Latest Release of Mentor Graphics' IC Design Flow
VaST Systems Technology and Gaia System Solutions Announce Initiative in Japan for Development of Automotive Electronics Using VaST Virtual System Prototyping Solutions
ESL: Tales from the Trenches - Technical Paper from DAC 2005
Virage Logic Senior Executives Tapped to Deliver Industry Keynotes
Cadence Seeks Silicon Valley Beneficiary for 2006 Stars & Strikes Fundraiser
Cradle Rocks With Sequence's PowerTheater; "PowerTheater Reduces Power Consumption by 30 Percent and Demonstrates Accuracy Within 10 Percent of Silicon"
A Noise-Driven Effective Capacitance Method With Fast Embedded Noise Rule Calculation for Functional Noise Analysis - Technical Paper from DAC 2005 Agere Systems Accelerates Tapeout of High-Performance SOC with Synopsys IC Compiler
Altium Releases Altium Designer 6.0
PCB Enhancements Head Altium Designer 6.0 Release
Other IP & SoC News
Hiroshima Elpida Commences Mass Production of 90 nm DRAM Chips on New 300 mm Wafer Production Line; Newly Expanded E300 Fab Targets 54,000 Wafers per Month, the Largest Semiconductor Capacity in Japan
Renesas Technology and Grandis to Collaborate on Development of 65 nm MRAM Employing Spin Torque Transfer
Tundra Semiconductor releases Q2-fiscal 2006 financial results
Len Perham to Discuss 'The Future of Technology in the Silicon Valley and Beyond' in Executive Panel
Globetech Solutions adds CE-ATA to portfolio of Verification IP
SafeNet Announces High End Integrated Security Processor for SME Networking Equipment; SafeXcel-5160 is the Most Cost Effective Security Processor for Gigabit Class SME Appliances
Competition Rises in the Advanced Television Semiconductor Market as Future Predictions Estimate the Market to Grow to $1.9 billion in 2009
Signum Systems Introduces Low Cost, Full-Featured JTAG Emulator for TI C2000(TM) Digital Signal Controllers
MagnaChip Semiconductor Launches Its PMOLED QCIF+ Two Chip Solution
Chipcon Introduces CC2431: The World's First System-on-Chip Solution With Location Estimation Capability Targeting ZigBee(TM)/IEEE 802.15.4 Low Power Wireless Sensor Networks
Fairchild Semiconductor Reiterates Guidance for the Fourth Quarter
Sunplus, World's Leading Consumer IC Design Company, Licenses DTS-ES / Neo:6 Technology
Strengthening the Weakest Link: Key to Competitive Advantage in the EMS Supply Chain Market
Rothschild Invests 5M Euro in Chipidea
SST Communications Introduces Industry's First Dual Power Amplifier for MIMO-Based WLAN Systems
Chip Companies To Announce Breakthroughs At Washington, D.C. Conference Next Week; MIT's Neil Gershenfeld Will Speak on Relationship Between the Bits of the Digital World and the Atoms of the Physical World
Samsung's Leading-Edge 512Mb GDDR3 Graphics Memory Powers Xbox 360(TM) Consoles
STMicroelectronics Extends NOR Flash Memory Subsystems Portfolio with First 512Mbit-based Solutions in 90nm Technology
Nintendo Selects Cypress's PSoC(R) Mixed-Signal Array For Hot New Game Boy(R) Micro; Programmable System-on-Chip(TM) Product Saves Development Time and Cost, Helping Nintendo Hit Critical Sub-$100 Price Point
OSRAM Opto Semiconductors Unveils New Power TOPLED Using Advanced Thin-Film Technology; Enabling 150 Percent More Efficiency, Crossing the Threshold into Conventional Lighting Markets
TI's Low Power MCU, DSP and Analog Technologies Enable Energy Metering and PLC Solution from Incotex Co. Ltd.
Texas Instruments and Cypress Collaborate to Deliver Low-Power, 27-MHz Wireless Mouse Reference Design
Second Generation High Voltage LED Driver IC From Supertex Provides High Current Accuracy
New "Green and Gold" RoHS-Compliant I2C Serial EEPROM ICs from Catalyst Semiconductor
Primarion Launches Di-POL(TM) Family of Low-Cost, Programmable Digital Integrated Power Conversion and Power Management ICs with Single-Phase Controller
Significant Growth in Small Form Factor and Mobile PC Hard Disk Drives to Boost Worldwide HDD Semiconductor Market, IDC Predicts
Texas Instruments' New OMAP(TM) 2 Processor for Mobile Phones Boosts Video Performance by 4X
Zero Capacitor Memory Technology Proved Realisable on FinFET/TriGate Device Geometries; Highest Density Memory Provider Proves sub-45nm Capability
Freescale Manufactures World's First 24-Mbit Silicon Nanocrystal Memory
Agilent Technologies Announces Innovative Image Pipe for Camera Phones; Processor Enables Digital-Camera-Like Image Quality for Cell-Phone Cameras in All Lighting Conditions
DiBcom Offers a Complete Range of Solutions for PC TV Peripherals With New, Highly-Integrated, Low-Power, Low-Cost DVB-T Chips
New Ultra-Miniature Crystal Resonator Enables Smaller Mobile Platforms, More Features
TI Introduces 14-bit, 190MSPS Analog-to-Digital Converter with Unprecedented Speed, Performance, Power, Size and Output Interface
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-- Jack Horgan, EDACafe.com Contributing Editor.