Abstracts
18 May 2010
9:00 - 12:00
GSA European Modeling & Analog/Mixed-Signal Workshop
GSA is pleased to announce a special complimentary technical workshop showcasing 2 key issues affecting analog design - Analog Modeling and "More than Moore." The workshop focuses on analog/mixed-signal design and model optimisation, as well as design methodology in the face of “More than Moore.” Analog Modeling and Inclusion in iPDKs will feature experts on model development and optimization tools. The More than Moore discussion will feature leading players in the development of devices from both design and manufacturing.
Attendance to the workshop is complimentary and open to all.
- 9:00 - 10:30 -
Analog Modeling and Inclusion in iPDKs
- Moderated by Wladek Grabinski, MOS-AK/GSA Workshop Manager and CEO of Grabinski Modeling Group
- Panelists include experts from foundry, EDA and analog design
- 10:30 - 12:00 -
"More than Moore"
- Moderated by Paul Double, GSA A/MS Interest Group Chair in Europe and Founder and Managing Director of EDA Solutions Limited
- Panelists include experts in foundry, EDA, design and supply chain
Please contact Tiffany Olson to register for this complimentary workshop.
Keynote Address: Semiconductor Growth Drivers for the Next Decade
As the semiconductor industry emerges from the recession of 2008/9, industry executives are shifting their focus from cost reduction and the maximisation of existing resources to put renewed emphasis on opportunities for growth.
The market landscape has changed dramatically in the last decade. The communications and computing sectors, previous drivers of industry growth, have declined in importance. In their place has come renewed interest in the consumer sector, and more recently in industrial and medical applications. Of particular importance has been the rise in emphasis on energy efficiency, which has spawned opportunities across a diverse range of applications and industry sectors.
This presentation will look across the entire breadth of semiconductor applications and identify some of the key opportunities for manufacturers over the next 5-10 years, quantifying these wherever possible, and specifying which semiconductor product sectors will be most affected. It will also examine which of these opportunities will be most attractive to European organisations.
Keynote Address: The New Semiconductor Paradigm
As a result of the difficult financial conditions in 2009, sheer necessity required that semiconductor company executives become more adept at managing operations. Inventories were lean, factory utilizations were high and companies managed their balance sheets well. In essence, they ushered in “The New Semiconductor Paradigm.”
With positive economic indicators for 2010, forecasters predict that 2010 will bring increased manufacturing which will require renewed investment in capital spending. A majority of IDMs continue to follow the fab-lite approach to manufacturing, maintaining older process technology fabs in-house and outsourcing advanced geometries to foundries.
OEM revenue declines in 2009 marked the only decline since 2001’s dot-com age. After an almost 7% drop in 2009, the global consumer electronics market is projected to recover to $317.3B in 2010 from $312.3B in 2009, according to iSuppli Corp. Sales will be driven by digital set-top boxes (STBs) and appliances such as e-readers and other electronic gadgets in developed nations and basic appliances in emerging markets. For example, China OEMs are expected to continue to drive LCD TV sales. Similarly, STB sales are expected to be strong in Asia Pacific due to the investment in digital infrastructure.
Keynote Address:
Power Electronics and Connectivity for Enhanced Efficiency
Wi-Fi chip shipments in 2009 increased approximately 28% year-on-year, according to data from ABI Research. Total revenue is expected to achieve an estimated CAGR of 18 % between 2009 and 2014. Total market demand for Wi-Fi ICs is expected to keep growing because the demand for Wi-Fi ICs in mobile devices and consumer electronic devices are the two key engines for Wi-Fi IC's market growth.
In recent years almost all laptops, netbooks, mobile Internet devices and smartbooks have shipped with Wi-Fi embedded, a trend that will continue for some time to come. Wi-Fi IC placement in mobile handsets grew by more than 50% in 2009 and Wi-Fi-enabled handsets will account for 40% of the total of handsets shipped in 2014. Beyond the already established segments, portable media players with Wi-Fi have also seen strong growth which will continue through 2014. More and more consumer electronic devices, such as digital still cameras, digital camcorders, TVs, DVD players, STBs are adopting Wi-Fi. The total shipments of Wi-Fi-enabled consumer electronic devices increased 33 per cent in 2009 compared to 2008; the products with fastest-growing attach rates are digital camcorders, TVs and STBs.
Technology companies are beginning to look steadily at home energy management with many different approaches. Pike Research forecasts that there will be more than 28 million energy displays installed by 2015, with 11 million people accessing home energy data from Web-based dashboards and 2.6 million from mobile phones.
One company recommends bypassing traditional utility-installed smart meters to help consumers lower their electricity bills by building Wi-Fi-enabled smart plugs. A few strategically placed smart plugs, called a Picowatt, will provide many of the benefits promised to consumers by the smart grid, including a real-time read-out of electricity usage and the ability to control appliances from a central point. Millions of smart meters are being installed over the next three years, but utilities are being slow with sharing consumption data inside the home over a wireless network, in part because of security concerns.
Wireless applications in these areas continue to evolve. How can semiconductor companies successfully tap into these technologies to expand their product portfolio and become a truly diversified organization, leading to increased growth and profitability?
16:00 - 16:45
Keynote Address: 3D ICs - Opportunities and Challenges
The momentum around 3D integration is being embraced by the industry. Approaches based on traditional CMOS downscaling are not seen as the only way to achieve better performance, lower cost or smaller devices. The wireless industry is looking at the "More than Moore" approach to integrate ICs on top of each other with vertical connections as an alternative path. Leading edge R&D centers have investigated this technology for a few years and now foundries, fabless, IDMs and packaging houses are referring to it as a strategic axis. First expected benefits of 3D ICs have been identified, some products are already sampling and more are in the plans for the coming years. The impact of 3D integration will no longer be negligible and might reshape some part of the industry.
The presentation will encompass the topics listed below.
- 3D integration: Is it really something new in the wireless industry?
- What benefits can be expected from 3D ICs?
- 3D through Silicon Via: A true paradigm shift
- What are the challenges and how can they be solved? Both technical and non-technical considerations needs to be handled.
Town Hall Session: The Future of Europe as a Global Semiconductor Leader
In emerging countries, such as India, China and other places many routine medical emergencies require immediate intervention otherwise become fatal due to lack of infrastructure and poor rural connectivity. Thanks to the application of electronics, diagnostic techniques have become more or less automated and affordable. The issue of portability is also being addressed for clinical diagnostics like CT, MRI, ultrasound and angiogram. Home diagnostics like blood sugar, BP and ECG have also become popular due to its portability and low cost of ownership. These developments have been possible mainly due to the integration capabilities of wireless technologies and semiconductor chips that have brought down the size and cost of these products while increasing their capabilities.
In summary, despite the uncertainty of global macroeconomic challenges, opportunity for the semiconductor industry exists in many forms. How Europe chooses to address these opportunities in expanding economies, particularly in areas where they maintain design strength, will portend the probabilities of future success.
What is Europe’s role in the global economy and how can it leverage its design and manufacturing strengths to capture a significant share of the emerging world?
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What role will China play in manufacturing strategies versus the rest of the world?
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As IDMs shut down fabs, how will this impact the delivery of product into an expanding market?
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What role will the Chinese IDMs play in the market recovery in 2010 and beyond?
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Will inventory management continue to be strong?
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Which companies are poised to grab a share of the worldwide emerging markets?
19 May 2010
Keynote Address: Economic Forecast for the EU
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What is the forecast for Europe’s economic health as a region and as a market economy versus the rest of the world?
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What will the specific impacts to the semiconductor industry be and how will these impact the EU in particular?
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Which global economies are strong following the economic recession of 2009?
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Where is the consumer and enterprise buying -power today?
These are just a few of the topics that will be discussed and analyzed in this keynote. It will highlight the global macroeconomic trends affecting 2010 worldwide recovery. Finally, it will identify how semiconductor technology can play a larger role in overall macroeconomic growth and stability – from energy savings and harvesting, to green environmental technology, to enabling “smart” medical and automotive applications and beyond – this keynote will draw a picture of what is required to reach economic stability and how the semiconductor industry can help achieve this.
Panel Discussion Part I: Inhibitors to Fast Silicon Content Growth: Low Power & Wireless
While traditional consumer electronics markets have driven the majority of consumer semiconductor revenue, new markets such as Mobile Internet Devices, home networking/communication, mobile TV, netbooks and e-readers will become the new drivers for increased silicon content over the next five years. To gain a competitive edge in these markets, semiconductor companies must overcome several inhibitors facing them when developing their product lines to meet consumer demand in these markets. This panel will focus on discussing the silicon content growth inhibitors in the following areas:
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Processor Speed
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Integration of voice and data
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Network connectivity
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Low Power Consumption
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Content/Multimedia capability
Keynote Address: Digital Home Connectivity- A View From the Carrier, the Consumer Electronics OEMs and the Subscriber
Carriers are becoming increasingly aware of the strength and necessity of a robust connected home network. Value-Added Services (VAS) are being deployed, seeking increased ARPU, reduction in churn and higher levels of customer satisfaction. Content consuming devices, such as TVs, BluRay players, PCs, gaming consoles, set-top boxes, etc. are making their way into every corner of the home including mobile and fixed platforms. Over-The-Top (OTT) business models are challenging the Operators' dominance in the home, by promising to use generic broadband as their delivery vehicle. Once again a robust and deterministic network in the home is key to the OTT player and the success of their financial business models.
The rhetorical question, “why shouldn't home networks be as manageable as an enterprise environment?” should be asked and answered.
CE OEMs are finding that their products, in an effort to make them more feature rich and competitive in the market versus their peers, need to be "connected" to the cloud. Consumers and subscribers alike, all demand more access to other applications, content and experiences that may not be available from within the home. In contrast, consumers are storing and aggregating more and more rich multimedia content in the home that they seek to redistribute across all personal platforms.
The convergence of content, media, services, utility management, CPE and CE devices, along with the management of these platforms and their associated experiences, is catalyzing a new and significant growth phase in the semiconductor marketplace. Connectivity, communications, conversion, transcoding, transrating, aggregation, HAN, WAN, LAN & PAN connectivity and finally, standards-based messaging, will be key to this unprecedented opportunity expansion phase in the Communications IC semiconductor sector.
This presentation will cover the challenges and opportunities for increasing the number of points of presence in the connected home and smart energy markets and the growth prospects that these exciting new applications provide.
Panel Discussion Analog: The New Bottleneck!
Despite being only a fraction of the overall chip content, analog design is now dominating both the critical design path and the yield/failure mechanisms. Therefore, it is high time all stakeholders took a more critical view of analog design. Whether an EDA vendor, Fabless/IDM, contract designer or foundry, we all need to re-assess design tools and practices to ensure we can achieve right first time design in a reasonable timeframe, and thus can all reach profitability sooner.
This panel will explore what can be done in EDA, design and foundry to improve design knowledge, practice and efficiency to ensure right first time becomes the expectation it once was and not the vain hope it has become.
Keynote Address: TBA