This week in gEEk: Congress, tech's love/hate relationship; Freescale's executive shuffle; REACHing for raw materials
Welcome to This week in gEEk, EDN’s short review of the week’s happenings.
Shall we dance? Freescale did the executive shuffle this week, moving CTO Lisa Su to its newly vacated VP, networking and multimedia seat. The company has lost a handful of top execs, including Lynelle McKay, who Su replaces; Sumit Sadana, Freescale’s former senior VP of strategy and business development; and Paul Grimme, Freescale’s senior VP and general manager of microcontroller solutions, as it continues to reorganize under CEO Rich Beyer.
Google hopes to reorganize the smartphone market, putting its branding behind T-Mobile’s G1 Android-based smartphone. But analysts believe Google’s reputation will only take G1 and the platform so far, noting the Open Handset Alliance’s late entrance into an already crowded market and possible operator subsidies issues for Android-based phones.
Speaking of "issues," Craig Barrett expressed some issues he has with Congress and spending. Lack of dollars for tech innovation is like throwing America’s future "down the drain," he said.
Barrett made his statements as Congress passed the R&D tax credit extension and our $700 billion bailout package moved its way through the ranks. Some economists are comparing the current financial crisis to the tech bubble and burst of the late 1990s.
Whether you agree or disagree, for sure, tech is an important part of our economy’s strength. According to data from trade association group AeA this week, tech exports alone create some 900,000 US jobs.
But enough about the US. UK-based ARC said it will move some engineering and product development work to Russia and India as part of a company reorganization that it believes will better allow it to focus on its multimedia business and on high-volume consumer markets. TSMC said it expects sales to Europe to make up 30% of its total sales this year. Numonyx upped its stake in its China joint venture fab with Hynix. And evidencing industry-wide efforts to cut costs and raise operating capacity, Renesas said it is planning to sell its fab in Landshut, Germany, by the end of this year.
Transmeta is also on the block, looking for a buyer after exploring a range of alternatives and after strengthening its balance sheet. Separately, Transmeta entered into two agreements with Intel for the licensing of certain technologies and IP, and for the accelerated payment of its receivables from the industry leader to result in a Q3 payment of $91.5 million.
It’s not just big business opportunity that Intel is interested in. The company this week revamped its vPro technology, targeting small business with features for enhanced security and reduction of time and cost of maintenance. Intel also priced a dual-core version of its Atom processor and invested $20 million in a social media start-up.
Separately, start-up Infinisim announced its analog simulation product. "Aimed squarely at the problem of performance and capacity in existing SPICE-accurate simulators, the new tool is in a way the culmination of the work of several major players in the simulation space," EDN Executive Editor Ron Wilson describes in his blog. Ron also writes about IP in his blog, and reported that 65 nm and 45 nm have changed IP porting forever, and it is vital for IP users to understand how.
Understanding of REACH, the EU chemicals directive, is also vital. Some 300 pages long, with hundreds of pages of guidance notes, REACH is one of the most complex regulations to come out of the EU. It’s also one of the most costly to implement. As a result of these costs, certain substances may be phased out by EU manufacturers. And at the very least, US companies are likely to find that products and raw materials purchased from the EU will become more expensive, as EU companies comply with the REACH regulations.
Have something to say on the above noted happenings? Share your comments on this week’s news and analysis below.
–Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News
