Trend Radar 2008: Miniaturization

Our wish list for what features we want on the convergence device keeps getting longer, while form factor keeps getting smaller. Familiar movie. Unfamiliar outcome.

iPhone and the Future of Samsung

Samsung views the iPhone as a mixed blessing. In many ways, they are the company that is best prepared to cope with the challenge of actually coming up with a competing product, and they seem to be working on one: the F700. There is also speculation that they are doing the main processor chip for

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Smaller, Faster, Cheaper – (Part 3)

By Lance Glasser, Guest Author [Part 2] We are seeing the research and development needed to stay at the leading edge of the semiconductor business increase steadily over the last few years. This has driven a consolidation of R&D into fewer bleeding edge players. This same phenomenon has also resulted in increasing buying power for

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Chip VCs: Enhanced “nerd” factor needed

I mentioned Chip Scale Packing (CSP), which I should also explain further. In simple terms, for these miniaturized consumer devices, Printed Circuit Board (PCB) real estate is a big problem. CSP is a packaging technology that allows chips to be packaged “at the scale of the chip” with marginally more area requirement. In recent times,

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SiP is a major discontinuity

Okay, so I should explain what is the big deal about System-in-Package (SiP) … You must have noticed the trend in cellular handsets of packing in dramatically diverse functionality? Samsung’s latest model has a 5 Mega Pixel camera, and if this is any indication, consumers will further reap benefits of such integration trends in the

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SiP versus Structured ASICs

Semiconductors and Electronics have invaded every aspect of our lives in fairly extensive ways. During the last quarter of the twentieth century, this segment received enormous attention, venture investment, and duly provided some amazing vision, thought leadership, and innovation. Now, in the first decade of the 21st Century, the industry is showing signs of hitting

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