The 2020 calendar for SEMI (the ESD Alliance’s parent organization) ostensibly started January 12 as the Industry Strategy Symposium (ISS) got underway in Half Moon Bay, Calif. Senior executives from throughout the global electronic product manufacturing and supply chain heard economists, technologists and financial analysts offer insights about the economy, technologies and business trends. 
Of interest to the electronic system design ecosystem was the closing keynote by Simon Segars, CEO of Arm and chairman of the ESD Alliance’s Governing Council. Under the “A Look into the Future” umbrella, Simon imagined “A New Roaring ‘20s –– The Fifth Wave of Computing Driving Semiconductor Sector Innovation.” His talk, a bullish look at the future of technology, highlighted its use to solve global problems, such as climate change, health and weather prediction.
Simon’s reference to the 5th Wave implies new chip designs and architectures, including new packaging and integration architectures to support moving AI processing to the endpoint. He also pointed to the need for more software creation, another area that could be further automated.
During the 40-minute presentation, Simon cited several key technology drivers including smartphones that will remain a driver over the next decade with 3.5-billion users out of the 7.8-billion world’s population and 9.4-billion cellular connections.
Another example is IoT that combines physical and digital data. According to Arm’s predictions, one-trillion connected devices will be in use by 2035. In addition, 5G will play a role in connectivity and transporting data. One application will use real-time physical IoT data and digital data to predict flooding up to three weeks in advance in African Country Malawi.
Simon used AI as one more example of a key technology driver. AI tasks are distributed across cloud AI, edge AI and endpoint AI, or the sensor itself. AI, he observed, is moving to the endpoint, which means decisions can be made at the device (IoT) itself. Simon’s example is a waterpipe leak detector where the latest generation sensing device has built in AI to detect leaks at the sensor.
Few technology presentations today overlook the rapid changes and growth within the automotive segment. Simon described the modern family car with 10-million lines of compute code, while a high-end car has 100-million lines. In the future, a Level 5 autonomous vehicle that’s fully automated with no human driver involved will require one-billion lines of compute code.
Simon’s presentation offered good news across the electronic product manufacturing and supply chain and a positive outlook for the future of technology. He gave his audience plenty to think about and concluded his talk with predictions for the Fifth Wave of Computing –– IoT for gathering data, 5G for transporting data and AI for processing data.
Why not ensure your company is a member of the ESD Alliance and SEMI? The ESD Alliance is a Strategic Technology Community within SEMI. As a member, you can participate in all that the ESD Alliance offers and in the wide range of benefits offered by SEMI.
If your company is already a SEMI member, becoming a member of the ESD Alliance is as easy as submitting a short application. Your company won’t pay an extra fee to become a member.
Not a SEMI member yet? No problem, it’s easy to join and your company can apply at the same time to join the ESD Alliance. Again, no extra fee is associated with being a part of the ESD Alliance.
Contact me at bsmith@semi.org to learn more about the ESD Alliance and all our programs and initiatives.
Engage with the ESD Alliance at:
Website: www.esd-alliance.org
ESD Alliance Bridging the Frontier blog: http://bit.ly/2oJUVzl
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