As it's often the case with BusinessWeek articles, this one is full of references and short quotes. In other words, it's dense and difficult to summarize.
But the subject is simple: put a whole system on a chip.
In the chip biz, less is turning out to be more. And raw horsepower is no longer the be-all, end-all of chip design. These days, semiconductor powerhouses such as Intel, Texas Instruments, and STMicroelectronics are racing to usher in a generation of chips that can replace whole colonies of present-day processors by combining all their functions into one sliver of silicon, a "system on a chip."
To be sure, the push to combine functions is as old as the integrated circuit itself. But these systems represent a new stage. Industry insiders say that in the next few years, the rollout of powerful all-in-one chips will strengthen the hand of the behemoths at the expense of the industry's lesser players. "Just a small number of companies have the capability," says STM CEO Pasquale Pistorio.
Let's look at the cell phones market for example.
Nowhere is the competition tougher than in cell phones. Half a dozen wireless chipmakers are spending billions to build a superchip that will drive the cheapest possible phone. TI thinks its design -- which reduces the total number of components in a cell phone to 25 from 185 today -- will streamline assembly and cut handset prices in half. That would boost sales in developing markets such as India and China. "By lowering the cost, we can find the next billion users for wireless," says Richard K. Templeton, TI's chief operating officer.
And here is the conclusion of the article.
"The system on a chip is a new market accelerator," says Richard Doherty, president of Envisioneering Group. Right now, any acceleration would be welcome.
Source: Andrew Park, Cliff Edwards, Andy Reinhardt, and Irene M. Kunii, BusinessWeek, November 4, 2002
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