Solving a problem?
1 min read
With some 73,000 people passing through the gates during its four days, electronica confirmed its status as the leading event of its type. As you might expect from an event of this stature, there was a lot of glitz, many double decker stands and plenty of technological 'eye candy' intended to draw engineers to those stands. But when you stripped away the gloss, what did the 50th outing of electronica tell us about the electronics industry? That it is a mature industry which is moving forwards incrementally, rather than through huge technological jumps.
Semiconductor manufacturers recognise this, although not overtly. So if you can't develop revolutionary technology, what can you do? The answer being pushed on many stands was 'solutions' – an apparent recognition that the needs of users are moving ahead faster than the industry can respond.
Ask suppliers why they are offering solutions and you'll hear phrases such as 'time to market', 'lack of resources' and 'skills shortages'. The thinking is these 'solutions' will help to overcome these challenges.
So what are these 'solutions'? In some instances, they are the evaluation boards and reference designs which we know and love. Others are designs – recipes, if you will – that pull together a number of components to ease the integration problem. But an analogue company's solution, for example, will only be partial; a marketable product will need an MCU and other components.
If there is this demand, who might provide more complete 'solutions'? Suppliers themselves could ally with complementary companies to develop a more market ready solution.
Distributors are an obvious candidate; with the ability to select the best components from their linecards to develop solutions for particular vertical markets. Also well positioned is the emerging category of 'independent design house', who will, it is suggested, take the idea on the back of the customer's envelope and stitch solutions together to make a product.
At electronica's CEO Roundtable, NXP's boss Rick Clemmer acknowledged the semiconductor industry is moving towards solutions – and that software will be a critical component. "All we can do is make solutions available," he noted. "Applications will be developed from them. It is our job to provide functionality." Or, as they say, business as usual.
