The Hindu Business Line : `Convergence poses biggest challenge for chip designers'

As personal digital gadgets such as iPods and smart phones and home entertainment devices get sleeker by the day, semiconductor companies such as ARM are packing more features on to the same chip, while ensuring that there is lower power consumption and seamless interface.

With convergence of services driving significant part of this innovation, some of the coolest gadgets to be shipped, such as Sony PSP and Ninetendo DS Lite, have been powered by ARM technology.

Mr David Rose, Director of ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co, said that in the personal entertainment devices and home segments, there is renewed thrust to ensure that all such devices work together more effectively.

Speaking to Business Line during a recent visit to Hyderabad, Mr Rose delineated some key trends driving chip technology convergence in the home segment.

Be it standalone music and video entertainment devices - or those packed on to mobile phones and personal multimedia electronic devices that pack rich content - video on demand and 3-G map services and multi-megapixel cameras, the technology changes are rapid and often disruptive.

Mr Rose said that the demand for processors in portable multimedia devices is to bring in capability of delivering desktop level performance.

With TV-on-mobile making inroads and the effort to make a truly converged digital home, innovation is aimed at ensuring that gadgets and devices work seamlessly.

"ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, be it mobile phones, home and enterprise solutions or embedded applications. In partnership with company's broader community, we provide a total system solution that offers fast and reliable path to market for leading electronic companies."

Mobile gaming and digital mobile TV have emerged as two of the fastest growing business opportunities for chip designers.

One of the challenges designers face is packing more processing power while ensuring that devices consume less energy. This is being managed with intelligent energy management technology, he said.

Some two billion ARM-powered chips are to be shipped in 2006, against 1.7 billion in 2005; ARM expects to scale this up to 4.5 billion by 2010.

Typically, some of the larger home entertainment devices could host a few chips that need to communicate with each other - they need to work as one (this is also referred to as virtualisation).

"A lot of consumers want an all-encompassing entertainment device, which is hard to achieve. The effort is to ensure convergence. Mobile TV, higher gaming capability and high definition video are poised for growth."

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