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Rukmini Priyadarshini

Think of Philips and you think of lamps. But it's playing pioneer when it comes to the chips used in its products. More on the trend.

Arun Sam Amirtham

WITH the advent of newer communication technologies, ever-newer applications and services in the cellular phone market, the industry trend is to prefer 'system solutions,' says Arun Sam Amirtham, General Manager, Philips Semiconductors, in conversation with eWorld.But what is a `system solution' trend? It's like this. Chip-makers were hitherto supplying chips to different segments — computing, mobile phones, or consumer appliances as the case may be — that were the basic stuff, full of hardware and hardly anything much by way of software.But now, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) want chip-makers to give them chips with a minimum degree of functional software, which may vary depending on the activity the chip is intended for. Hence, they want chips with `system solutions' built into them.

Now, a system solution enables the chip to even have functional abilities — a solution for the mobile phone industry can let a user perform `speak and listen' functions without any additional software being written by the OEM. Obviously, OEMs then load software onto the system solution before taking the product to market, says Amirtham.Philips, he says, pioneered the system solution model of chip-making in the late 1990s. And the superiority of its chips in the market comes not only because of its early start in system solutions but also because each solution is extensively tested for interoperability and across environments, he says.

The growth in the cellular market and the move to cellular system solutions are paralleled by the increasing multimedia content being offered to consumers, stresses Amirtham, who was part of the team that led Philips' pioneering effort to develop the system solutions model.

In the chat with eWorld, Amirtham elaborates on the Nexperia platform, the growth in the cellular market and the system solutions model.

Philips recently introduced the latest version of it Nexperia Cellular System Solutions, a hardware/software design for low- and mid-range mobile handsets. The Nexperia was introduced to address the demand for fast delivery of complex system solutions, is built on a modular architecture and offers a solutions portfolio. "From a high volume market, manufacturers are going into the multimedia segment where there is an explosion of features,'' Amirtham says. "In the mobile segment, one in 10 GSM/GPRS handsets has the Philips system solution on it.'' This has come about as a result of deals with Samsung, Siemens and a couple of large Chinese OEMs and the mobile handsets with the Philips mobile chip-set.

Philips, which has moved away from its former focus on Europe, now expects about 45 per cent of its revenues to come from Asia, 30 per cent from Europe and 25 per cent from the US. China is the world's biggest market for mobile phones - with about 200 million subscribers and growing. "We see a surge in demand now - growth is about 9-10 per cent a year, driven mainly by high-volume manufacturing companies,'' says Amirtham.

The Nexperia Home has been identified as part of Philips' Connected Home/Digital home applications, including digital television, home entertainment, DVD recorders, etc. The Nexperia mobile is aimed at mobile multimedia handsets, wireless PDAs and other portable wireless devices. According to Amirtham, the Nexperia results in reduced time to market for the mobile, audio and TV applications.

Apart from mobile applications, the Nexperia has a leading position in the DVD-RW segment, especially due to the system solution model. Nearly 28 per cent of DVD video recorders sold in 2003 are based on the Nexperia, and a 30 per cent market share is projected by the end of the financial year, he says. Philips' strengths in multimedia come to the mobile through features, applications and services, including digital pictures (camera), digital video, mobile gaming, multimedia messaging services, Bluetooth, PDAs and digital audio, says Amirtham.

With 3G-driven imaging, audio and video streaming technologies and the development of wireless technologies and the adoption of wireless standards, the potential for usability and applications is growing.

"The market wants not a general purpose chip but a full systems solution that can do much more,'' Amirtham says.

It is only the top-tier, high-volume players who want general purpose chips or the basic chip while the system-solution is aimed at a smaller, but growing part of the market that goes into cell-phones, set-top boxes, and digital devices.

priya@thehindu.co.in

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