Sir Robin Saxby, Chairman of ARM, Delivers Keynote at Semico Summit

Phoenix, Arizona March 23, 2006 - On Monday, March 13, 2006, Sir Robin Saxby, Chairman of ARM and Deputy President of the IEE, delivered the keynote presentation at the ninth annual Semico Summit. Titled “Don’t Just Survive, Thrive”, his presentation stressed the importance of innovation in order to thrive in the semiconductor market. Sir Robin began by pointing out that the industry growth in the 80’s and 90’s was based on scaling of computing power at the expense of power consumption. He noted that in order to improve power consumption, there has been a trend toward multi-processor systems and scaling for power and cost savings. ARM has led this trend; 1.7 billion ARM chips were shipped last year by ARM’s partners. The company’s focus is on increasing computing power and performance while reducing cost and power consumption.

Sir Robin went on to say that while demand for digital electronics is increasing, consumers want technology to be invisible. In other words, technology needs to be easy to use and make people’s lives easier, rather than more complex. Also, fashion and style in electronics are driving even more interest, particularly in Asia. He noted that the adoption rate for new technologies is accelerating, pointing to the iPOD and iTunes as an example. With a shorter adoption cycle, consumer products have a shorter shelf life, which means semiconductor companies need to deal with shorter cycles for ramp-to-volume, system design, and software development.

He continued by introducing the concept of design-for-yield, which is an approach to increasing the amount of working silicon produced. If a manufacturer can shorten the ramp time for a product, then it can increase its profits by maximizing sales while the ASP is still high. “Time-to-market is time-to-money,” he stated. However, complexities in the lithographic process drive more yield issues, and make timely ramp-to-volume more difficult. The only way to solve these issues is to work together by sharing information and creating standards, while focusing on core competencies. He referred to this concept as “coopetition”, a blending of competition and cooperation.

Shifting gears to system design, Sir Robin indicated that hardware design is getting very complex with products requiring different performance, bandwidth and latency needs. Shorter market windows mean that software development must start as early as possible in the product development cycle. Software complexity and how companies manage that is driving industry change as developers need to use more IP and re-use more code. To emphasize the importance of industry collaboration, he mentioned SPIRIT, a consortium for IP packaging, integration and reuse standards. The consortium was founded in 2003 by ARM, Philips, Cadence, ST, Mentor Graphics, and Synopsys and now boasts a growing membership that includes Denali, LSI Logic, Infineon, and Freescale Semiconductor.

Concluding the presentation with a look into the future, Sir Robin talked about some potential products for the year 2020. One example is clothing with a built-in temperature monitor that can adjust itself according to the body temperature of the wearer. Implanted automatic prescription drug delivery and patient monitoring are ways in which we will prolong and improve our lives with the use of technology.

At the lunchtime ceremony, Sir Robin was presented with Semico’s Bellwether Award for his contributions to the industry.

About Semico
Semico Research Corp is a marketing and consulting research company located in Phoenix, Arizona.
Semico was founded in 1994 by a group of semiconductor industry experts. We have improved the validity of semiconductor product forecasts via technology roadmaps in end-use markets.
www.semico.com

About The Semico Bellwether Award
The Semico Bellwether Award is a signed, one-of-a-kind piece combining sculptural linkages and wind bells designed by internationally recognized architect and artist, Paulo Soleri, Ph.D. Semico affectionately established in 1999 the Bellwether Award to commemorate semiconductor leaders. This honor is bestowed on a selected company head, for notable contributions and achievements in the semiconductor industry, under the umbrella of grace and style. It is awarded by Semico only once per year at the Semico Summit during the prestigious luncheon ceremony. The Semico Summit is a high-level executive conference held annually since 1997 in Arizona. The recipient is also our conference kick-off keynote.

Contact:
Jim Feldhan
Semico Research Corp.
+1 602 997 0337
jimf@Semico.com