Michell Prunty's blog

This week Intel announced a test chip for its Terascale Computing Research program. The objective is to eventually bring super-computing into mainstream computing.

The Teraflops Research Chip is an 80 core design. Keep in mind that this is not an MPU architecture ready for commercialization but a test vehicle. An individual core does not have the same capability as the current complex cores in the 80x86 architecture. They are relatively simple in design.

A tile includes a compute element and a router to connect to each nearest neighbor and to an SRAM chip in the “z” direction. The SRAM chip is a stacked memory above the MPU. The actual processing element consists of data memory, instruction memory, and two floating point engines. Any tile can communicate with any other tile via the router, 80 GB/sec. This is NOT an IA instruction set (standard x86) but a VLIW. This 80-core chip is NOT a product but a research vehicle. The research chip has 100 million transistors and is manufactured on Intel’s standard 65nm process.

A key feature is the clocking scheme. Intel calls it mesochronous clocking. This is a modular clock as opposed to a single global clock. It allows for a fine grain power management thereby saving power. Intel claims energy efficiency of 16 gigaflops/watt.

Intel is exploring important technologies and techniques with this. Among these are

Freescale Semiconductor has announced two dual-core DSP (Digital Signal Processing) chips designed to support multiple HD (High Definition) audio standards. These two chips, the Symphony DSP56720 and DSP56721, are the first offerings in what will become a family of multi-core 24-bit audio processors, which will be suitable for audio applications in headphones, rack-mounted amplifiers, automotive sound systems or even in professional audio systems.

HD audio standards are requiring increased processing power and memory. To meet these requirements, many of today’s high performance audio solutions use multiple DSPs. The Symphony DSP56720 and DSP56721 use dual DSP56300 24-bit cores. Each core operates at 200 MIPs with a 200 MHz clock, thus providing all the processing power needed on one chip in one package, reducing board space and the cost of the design. The capability for increased memory is also included.

This year’s CES seemed larger than ever with aisles upon aisles of portable media and LCDs displaying HD content. This year wasn’t about new technologies as it was about the fruition of the industry’s innovation over the last few years. TVs are thinner than ever and now they’re becoming affordable to the average consumer. Portable media players are finally achieving the screen and batter life required, and MP3 players are getting increased storage.

Yet it wasn’t until I escaped from the hectic show floors and retreated to Texas Instrument’s relaxed atmosphere in their Hilton Suite that I was shown my two true loves of the show. On the fourth floor TI introduced me to their DirectPath Headphone Amplifier TPA6130A2 and their Stereo Audio Codec PCM3793/94.

These two products, while maybe not as impressive as a 32GB flash HDD for notebooks, are just as significant, because they address the last frontier in portable media: sound quality. What use is having an 800GB MP3 Player if I can’t get some high quality bass while cranking up the latest hits? What use is having a 10GB SD card on your camera for movies if you can constantly hear the camera zooming in and out?

The TPA613A2 has the highest PSRR (Power Supply Ripple Rejection) and the lowest quiescent current. These features make it possible to minimize outside noise, increase battery life, and maximize audio quality for any portable media player, while giving manufacturers a $.40 savings.

On January 8, 2007, at the CES show in Las Vegas, Nevada, Freescale Semiconductor announced the availability of three new micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) triple-axis acceleration sensors. Freescale is a major supplier of MEMS acceleration sensors for automotive applications, but the three new sensors extend Freescale’s capabilities into a wide variety of consumer applications. They feature low-power, zero-g detect for freefall protection, a small footprint for portable applications and a self-test function.

There are many potential applications for MEMS accelerometers in consumer products. One example is hard disk drive protection in portable electronic devices such as MP3 players or PDAs. Zero-g detection provides a logic interrupt signal when all three axes are at zero-g. Advanced motion sensing then detects when a device is falling so that steps can be taken to prevent damage to hard drives or other sensitive electronic components.

Another example is game controllers. Heightened multi-axis sensitivity and a full range of motion allow mobile and game users to make very small movements that result in accurate, controllable responses when scrolling, flying, driving or executing other quick responses. Other potential applications include recording falls or shock to limit warrant coverage, camera stabilization, electronic compass tilt compensation, GPS backup, image rotation, tap to mute and many others.

Agere Systems introduced on Monday, December 18, 2006 a new product category, the Mobile Content Server. Agere’s BluOnyx™ server, the first product in the new category, offers processing power and storage capacity in a small package, with connectivity to cell phones, various consumer devices or PCs.

Connections can be established either wirelessly, via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi; with a USB wired connection or by inserting an SD (Secure Digital) card. The BluOnyx server is quite small, slightly larger than a credit card and from about one-quarter inch to just over one-half inch thick, depending on its memory capacity, which can be either Flash-based, 1GB to 4GB, or hard disk drive-based, up to 40GB. The contents of a BluOnyx device can be displayed on a cell phone, PDA, PMP (Portable Media Player), a PC or other devices.

The BluOnyx server is much more than a mere portable hard drive. First, it includes processing power. Second, because it can be controlled by any Java^TM enabled cell phone with a Bluetooth capability, it frees consumer electronic devices from dependence on a PC. Instead, a BluOnyx server will be able to interact with a variety of platforms without first connecting to a PC. For example, consumers can:

A ten-year anniversary and a reputation as THE Semiconductor Executive Event, the Semico Summit will take place March 11 – 13, 2007 at the incomparable Camelback Inn. CEOs, Chairmen and other ranking executives from around the world will share what it takes to be competitive today. At the Semico Summit you never hear the same old tired topics from today’s news; you get next month’s headlines. Get all sides of the issues being confronted by executives, setting the trends in the industry.

This is a forward-looking event focusing on the topic: Driving Innovation. How do designers, manufacturers, equipment suppliers and the semiconductor industry as a whole continue to turn out groundbreaking products that excel in the marketplace?

If it is truly Driving Innovation, you will hear about it from the outstanding list of executive keynote speakers at the Semico Summit.

Early Bird registration is going on NOW. But Early Bird only lasts until the end of December – register on-line and SAVE BIG at http://www.semico.com/eventsummit/summit.asp

The SIA/WSTS October 2006 sales and shipment data for Micro Logic were released this week. The results are very much in line with Semico’s projections.

October sales were $3.84 billion. This is down 37.2% sequentially, but up 10.4% year over year. The MPU market accounts for more than half the sales of ML. This is driven by the PC market cycle. The October sales follow the PC market trends. The first month of the quarter is the lowest, with almost half the sales for the quarter occurring in the last month.

The MPU ASPs have been exceptionally volatile in 2006. The MPU ASPs did drop in October, though it was not as steep seen previously in the year. It appears that MPU pricing is starting to firm up. During 2006 Intel was ramping up its new products manufactured on 65nm faster than expected. Thus, the prices for previous generation MPUs dropped quickly to clear out this inventory. AMD followed suit. This is starting to settle out. Also, helping to decelerate the MPU ASP decline in 4Q 2006 is the product mix. Notebook PCs are selling at a higher rate than desktop PCs. The mobile MPUs carry a higher price.

Network processors are coming to your home or office. That is astounding because network processors were originally developed for Internet switching, and the first words that come to mind when thinking about network processors are “expensive” and “complex.” All of that is about to change.

Multi-channel HDTV streams and other triple-play applications are creating a need for switching higher speed data streams in home and small office networks. ARM^® and Parallogic Corp. have announced a collaboration that will meet this need, bringing the capabilities of easily programmed network processors into home or office networks at a reasonable price.

ARM has introduced the ARM11™ MPCore™ multicore processor, which has scalability up to four CPU cores. Parallogic supplies StriaEdge software. The combination creates an opportunity for makers of the next generation of gateways, routers, set top boxes and other network switching products in the SOHO market.

The ARM multicore processor provides the computing power needed to switch data streams in excess of 400 Mbps (megabits per second).

Third quarter results have been posted and the fourth quarter is set. There are even some indications regarding the outcome for first quarter 2007 performance. Dedicated foundries have always provided a window to the next quarter performance through their visibility of orders and business activity.

Chartered, TSMC and UMC all expect a slower fourth quarter. Lower revenues will be a result of lower wafer shipments and/or lower ASPs compared to Q3 2006.

TSMC expects revenues to be down 8%-10%. TSMC believes the inventory correction for computing that started in the second quarter 2006 is over but the cell phone market adjustment which started in Q3 2006 and will flow through to the first quarter 2007. Chartered expects revenues to be down approximately 5%, while UMC expects to see shipments down by 2-3% and ASPs down by 5-6%.

Of the top four dedicated foundries, SMIC is the only company setting guidance for fourth quarter higher than third quarter. It's only a 1-2% increase but that's better than a decline. Smaller foundries such as Vanguard and others expect to see continued growth through 2006 and into 2007. Vanguard is guiding up 20%.

Nintendo recently announced a financial report showing a rise in revenue over last year by 70%. This is mostly attributed to the DS Lite, a handheld console that has been driving change in the gaming market. The DS Lite is different from other devices since it boasts two screens, a touch screen and a normal screen. The DS Lite's main competitor is the Sony's PSP, a handheld console with a larger screen and better graphics abilities.

The DS Lite has sold over 10 million units for the first half of 2006, up from 3.5 million units last year. Regionally, about half of that went to Japan, 20% to the Americas, and 30% to the rest of the world.

Due to the increase in DS Lite sales, Nintendo is increasing their sales forecast to 20 million units by March 31st, up from 17 million. Meanwhile, Sony has lowered their shipment forecast to 9 million units from 12 million.

Semico Spin

Both the popularity of the DS Lite and the lagging sales of the PSP are not surprising. While the PSP has stunning graphics and a larger LCD screen, its game line up has been lacking since its release. The DS Lite however has created a new way to play games with its touch screen, and has also lined up a variety of games that appeal to every age group.