My old blog address is back! Am so happy!! :)

My dear friends, this is a great day for me! Rohit Basa, manager – Business Development (North America), ProcSys, who is currently in the USA, just responded to an email I’d sent out inviting him for Durga Puja celebrations in town!

In his mail, Rohit very kindly informed me that my old blog address — http://pradeepchakraborty.blogspot.com — is again available for fresh registration. His message to me was crystal clear: “Book it before anyone else does and direct a link to your new website. I’m a great fan of yours, your blog and articles.”Indeed! I was overjoyed when I re-registered the same old blog address, and got it back! I even brought back the same old look!! Well, at least, most of it!!!

The sheer pain of losing my original blog and blog address last August is something extremely difficult for me to get over! The effort I’d put in to develop that blog had been immense, and the loss was really shattering, to say the least! In fact, I even used to constantly check Blogger to find out whether the old blog address was still available.

While the pain has eased a bit on getting back my old blog address, I know very well that I simply cannot bring back the original traffic that it used to have. I moved my old blog to WordPress since that day it was taken off Blogger. The blog’s doing very well on WordPress. Still, the loss of my original Blogspot blog last year has haunted me every single day!

Thanks a ton, Rohit! I am so very touched and will remain forever obliged to you!!

I chose Sagar Desai of Symantec, from the US, a very close friend, as the next one to be informed that I’d got back my old blog address. Sagar stood by me in my darkest hour — when my old blog was injected with malware and later removed by Google in the middle of August, last year.

In fact, Sagar had commented just a while ago, on seeing my Durga Puja invite — “Did not know this cultural side of yours. Good to know that your life is just not semiconductors!”

I’d then asked him whether I’d got typecast. His reply was — “That’s probably more to do with the way you brand yourself. Image set ho gaya hai! You need to break the stereotype.”

It is so very nice and touching to hear such remarks from a close friend! It shows that he cares, a lot! Perhaps, I am getting typecast as a semicon blogger.

Guess what! The other day, I was at a National Instruments event. A journalist friend and an ex-colleague, actually, found some new names for me. One was ‘Semicon Bong’ — since I’m a Bengali, and the other was ‘Semicon Bomb’! Ok, whatever that last one means.

Well, now I simply can’t wait to inform Usha Prasad, my associate and buddy, that I’ve managed to get back my old blogspot address. Usha stood by me during that time and has steadfastly been by my side since that time. I just can’t wait to see her reaction when she hears this news! She’s fast asleep now.. come morning, and this is the first thing I’m going to tell her!

Finally, many, many thanks to all of those friends who’ve stood by me all this time!

And, a very special thanks again from the bottom of my heart to Rohit! You really made my day, sorry, my year, buddy!

Here’s wishing everyone a very happy Durga Puja and Dusshera!

NI stresses on innovation, launches LabVIEW 2010

National Instruments hosted the the annual India LabVIEW Conference 2010 in Bangalore today, where it also launched LabVIEW 2010 - the latest version of its graphical programming environment for design, test, measurement and control applications.

Jayaram Pillai, managing director, NI-India Russia and Arabia, delivered the India LabVIEW Conference 2010 keynote by discussing how LabVIEW in India has evolved from a product to a powerful ecosystem.

"Innovation is key," said Pillai: "I earlier cribbed about innovations not happening in India. Now, I have been seeing a lot of innovations over the last five years. Today, people are very involved. They understand situations, and so innovations are possible. Growth has to come with everybody involved. Innovations are required to solve problems. We need more innovations!"

Pillai presented an example of the solar powered milk refrigeration system as an example of innovation. This is a very simple solution addressing a massive problem, especially in rural areas of India. Vehicles with solar powered milk refrigeration systems visit villages and rural areas to collect the milk, and chill it for distribution and use later. LabVIEW was the silent hero behind the scenes.

He added that designers need better and simple tools, which have to be very flexible. Tools such as LabVIEW provide immense flexibility to scientists, engineers and designers. The LabVIEW vision is: bringing software programming to the masses. For over 24 years, NI has consistently delivered performance and features based on existing technologies via LabVIEW. Another interesting highlight is that LabVIEW has always been multi-core enabled.

LabVIEW ecosystem in India
Speaking about the India LabVIEW Sphere, which is one platform providing infinite solutions across industries and applications, Pillai said that from taking simple temperature measurements to controlling the world’s largest particle accelerator, engineers and scientists use the LabVIEW platform to meet a wide range of application challenges across various industries. He added that many features of LabVIEW 2010 are based on actual feedback received from users.

LabVIEW has a robust ecosystem in India. Currently, there are over 5,000 industry applications being served via LabVIEW, though this number could be higher. Over 400 engineering colleges are teaching LabVIEW in their curriculum and there are over 25,000 LabVIEW trained engineers in the country.

LabVIEW also boasts of over 4,000 active users online and more than 200 attendees during its weekly web user groups. This number rises as and when NI's customers present. "The sphere is all about things that help and sustain the NI and LabVIEW ecosystem." added Pillai.

Lattice intros Platform Manager family

Lattice Semiconductor Corp. has introduced the Platform Manager family -- its third-generation mixed-signal devices.

The Platform Manager product family consists of two devices -- the LPTM10-1247 and LPTM10-12107. The LPTM10-1247 device monitors 12 voltage rails and supports 47 digital I/Os, and the LPTM10-12107 device monitors up to 12 voltage rails and supports 107 digital I/Os.

The programmable devices will aim to simplify board management design significantly by integrating programmable analog and logic to support many common functions, such as power management, digital housekeeping and glue logic.By integrating these support functions, Platform Manager devices reduce the cost of these functions compared to traditional approaches, and improves system reliability. It provides a high degree of design flexibility that minimizes the risk of circuit board re-spins.

More to follow.

HDS unveils industry's first 3D scaling virtual storage platform (VSP)

Last week at the Hitachi Information Forum event, Hitachi Data Systems Corp. (HDS) introduced the Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform (VSP) -- said to be the industry’s first three-dimensional (3D) scaling platform. These claim to enable organizations to scale up, out and deep for unprecedented levels of agility and cost savings in their virtualized data centers.

The VSP, along with the Hitachi Command Suite management software, offers best-in-class performance, capacity and open, multivendor storage virtualization for large businesses and enterprise organizations.

The event was graced by Randy DeMont, executive VP, Worldwide Sales, Services and Support and Phil Gann, director, Solutions, Products and Services, APAC, who discussed the VSP, along with Kevin Eggleston, senior VP and GM, APAC and Vivekanand Venugopal, VP and GM, India, Hitachi Data Systems.

More details later.

Cowan LRA model: Global semicon sales forecast update based on August 2010's actual sales

This is a continuation of my coverage of the fortunes of the global semiconductor industry. I would like to acknowledge and thank Mike Cowan, an independent semiconductor analyst and developer of the Cowan LRA model, who has provided me the latest numbers.

This Monday, (10-04-10) the WSTS posted the August 2010 global semiconductor sales report (Historical Billings Report, HBR) on its website. Therefore, with the WSTS having released its actual August 2010 global semiconductor sales number, Cowan has provided the latest monthly update to the Cowan LRA Model's derived forecast numbers.

The updated sales forecast estimates for 3Q, 4Q and 2010 decreased very slightly from the previous month's forecast estimates as summarized below.

The actual August 2010 global semiconductor sales published by the WSTS came in at $25.358 billion which is:
* 30.8 percent higher than 2009's August sales of $19.175 billion;
* Up 3.2 percent from last month's (July) sales of $24.570 billion;
* And lower (by $0.090 billion, or down 0.35 percent) compared to last month's (July's projection) sales forecast estimate, that is, $25.448 billion;
* The Cowan LRA Model's Momentum Indicator, MI, went slightly negative (-0.35 percent) compared to last month's plus posture (at +5.0 percent), as discussed below.

Cowan's momentum indicator
August 2010’s actual semiconductor sales (of $25.358 billion) came in slightly lower (by $0.090 billion) than the model’s last month's August 2010 sales forecast estimate (of $25.448 billion) representing a minus 0.35 percent delta comparing August 2010's actual sales number (published by the WSTS) to the projected forecast estimate “put forth” by the Cowan LRA forecasting model and reported last month. This percent delta represents the Cowan LRA Model's MI.

The MI is defined as the percent difference between the actual sales for a given month -- in this case August 2010’s just published actual global sales of $25.358 billion and the forecasted sales estimate for August 2010, that is, $25.448 billion, which was calculated and published last month.

The MI can be either positive or negative and is a measure of the percent deviation of the actual monthly sales number from the previous month’s prediction derived by the model’s linear regression analysis of the past 26 years of historical, actual monthly global “sales experience” as gathered and published, each month, by the WSTS.

Note: September 2010’s sales forecast estimate is projected to be $31.402 billion.

Latest monthly update
The latest monthly update to 2010's global semiconductor sales forecast estimate as determined by the Cowan LRA forecasting model notched down very slightly to $305.406 billion corresponding to an updated projected 2010 year-over-year sales growth forecast estimate of 34.9 percent.

These latest forecasted 2010 sales and sales growth estimates decreased marginally from last month's (July) reported sales and sales growth forecast estimates of $305.729 and 35.1 percent, respectively. Thus the full complement of the latest, updated sales and sales growth forecast estimates for 3Q, 4Q and 2010 are detailed in the table immediately below along with the 1Q's and 2Q's actual reported sales numbers.

The second table shows the corresponding results from last month's model run in order to compare the sequential forecast estimate numbers, namely August versus July.Source: Cowan LRA model.

Additionally, next month's (Sept. 2010) global semiconductor sales forecast estimate is projected to be $31.402 billion, which would "translate" to an August 3MMA sales forecast estimate of $27.110 billion assuming NO (or very minor) revisions in either July or August sales numbers as part of the WSTS's September sales report.Source: Cowan LRA model.

The 3MMA sales is normally published by the SIA (using WSTS sales numbers) as part of its monthly press release that characterizes the semiconductor industry's monthly sales and sales growth posture. The SIA's September 3MMA press release is scheduled to be announced on Monday, November 1, 2010.Source: Cowan LRA model.

Actel’s ‘smart fusion’ with Microsemi a top draw!

Yes, this one seems to be a top draw! It is indeed a very ‘smart fusion’! In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, yesterday morning (US time), Microsemi Corp. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Actel Corp.

Microsemi, a leading manufacturer of high performance analog mixed-signal ICs, high reliability semiconductors and RF subsystems, will acquire Actel for $20.88 per share through a cash tender offer.

Actel is a leading supplier of low-power, mixed-signal, and radiation-tolerant FPGAs serving the Mil/aero, industrial, communication, and consumer markets. It is a leader in the satellite and space markets due to its deep knowledge of radiation tolerance, space-level qualifications, and its long history of service excellence.

In a conference call, James J. Peterson, Microsemi’s president and CEO, termed Actel as a perfect acquisition for Microsemi. Microsemi also sees lot of promise in Actel’s SmartFusion.

He said: ”We believe the addition of Actel will deliver compelling synergies to Microsemi. Actel will bring the most widely-used mixed-signal, radiation tolerant FPGA products in the aerospace and defense markets today, and the company’s products will allow Microsemi to extend its growing system-level capabilities. As Microsemi continues to move up the value chain in offering its customers system solutions that are better, faster, and more-cost effective than they can build themselves, Actel’s highly-integrated solutions will be an integral component in enabling this growth.”

“The proposed acquisition of Actel by Microsemi will create a powerful combination,” said John C. East, Actel president and CEO. “I can think of no company more complementary and better equipped to take Actel’s solutions to new heights.”

John W. Hohener, executive VP and CFO, Microsemi, added that terms of agreement have been unanimously approved by the boards of Microsemi and Actel.

The total transaction value is said to be approximately $430 million, net of Actel’s projected cash balance at closing. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the tender of a majority of the outstanding shares of Actel’s common stock and regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in Microsemi’s fiscal first quarter, ending January 2, 2011.

Microsemi expects significant synergies from this immediately accretive transaction. Based on current assumptions, It expects the acquisition to be $0.22 to $0.28 accretive in its first full calendar year ending December 2011.

For those who aren’t aware of SmartFusion, at this year’s Embedded World conference, Actel unveiled SmartFusion, the world’s first intelligent mixed signal FPGA. Actel’s SmartFusion devices feature proven FPGA fabric, a complete MCU subsystem built around a hard ARM Cortex-M3 processor and programmable analog blocks on a flash process. Embedded designers can now easily build the system they want, with all the features they need, on a single chip.

Even Vin Ratford, senior vice president, worldwide marketing and business development, Xilinx, had agreed that introducing analog/mixed signal capabilities in FPGAs is a good idea.

SmartFusion is bound to generate lot of excitement. It’s game on! I am awaiting an intelligent mixed signal FPGA from either Altera or Xilinx, or both. Congratulations are due to Actel and Microsemi.

What’s the way forward for Indian semicon/ESDM industry?

Recently, a panel discussion was held on the “Semiconductor evolution in India – Past, Present and Future,” at a conference in Bangalore.

Two eminent industry friends — Dr. Satya Gupta, co-founder and CEO, Concept2Silicon Systems and Rahul Arya, director, marketing and technology sales, Cadence Design Systems, were among the panelists.

Both of them attempted to provide a way forward for the Indian semiconductor (and ESDM) industry. Here’s a snapshot of their take on the evolution of the Indian semiconductor industry — from the past to the present, and the way ahead!

System level product definition required
Regarding the growth of semiconductors in India, Dr. Satya Gupta of Concept2Silicon, said that the past focused on design services and resource augmentation. The present day scenario is more toward design implementation and ownership, and some amount of product definition.

He advised that the future should be toward system level product definition, product marketing, and system design and manufacturing.

Dr Gupta raised some other points. One, critical decision making is required for product definition by small number of highly experienced domain and market experts. Two, several government schemes exist for financial support for SMEs and start-ups for technology development and innovation in the semiconductor and electronics system design and manufacturing (ESDM) spaces.

The India Semiconductor Association (ISA) is said to be working with government and other industry bodies to foster growth of ESDM market and products made in India, he added.

Dr. Gupta highlighted the importance of the availability of quality components in a timely fashion and at competitive pricing, which would be required to help ESDM companies. Further, effective use of the infrastructure available is also needed to create talent with the necessary experience in VLSI and system design.

Innovation brewing in tech, business
Presenting his snapshot on the evolution of the Indian semiconductor industry, Rahul Arya of Cadence Design Systems, said that in the past, India had moved from being an optimizer, to an enabler, on to being a co-inventor over the last 25 years. India started with cost arbitrage and experimentation. Liberalization in the 1990s and globalization helped.

When companies worldwide were trying to meet the productivity and time-to-market window, Indian design centers and services companies enabled growth. TI and Cadence were the early entrants in India. Over a period of time, the various India design centers built their credibility through relentless execution and developed expertise.

Now, India is on a growth trajectory. The local telecom market has arrived and what happens in this segment will be defining in some ways, the way forward. Arya said innovations are now brewing in technology and business models. Companies are now vying for share in local and global markets.

The way forward
So, what is the way forward? According to Arya, the mindset should change from fabless chip design to product design. Infotainment, telecom, defense and space will be the growth drivers.

The brain drain – or the reverse brain drain, which he calls, the ‘brain gain’, will speed up as companies will hire global experts with domain expertise and business outlook. India has moved from brain drain to reverse brain drain and going forward, it will be ‘brain gain’ wherein companies will hire global experts with domain expertise and business outlook. India can also look forward to an era of collaborations, acquisitions and manufacturing. There will be products conceptualized in India for the ‘glocal’ market.

Home truths
That’s quite an exhaustive wish list! Definitely, ‘brain gain’ is ongoing, as are initiatives to conceptualize products in India for the ‘glocal’ market.

ESDM has been doing the rounds in the sense that there has been a lot of talk about ESDM over the past eight to nine months or so in India. As far as we have been hearing, ESDM seems quite some way off from being a reality today!

The absence of an ecosystem for electronic components in India does not help matters much. How does one expect the Indian semiconductor or ESDM ecosystem to develop in the absence of an ecosystem for electronic components?

One could question here whether the Indian semicon policy or SIPS itself has succeeded. Perhaps, it has not, so far! However, there have been robust advances made in solar photovoltaics (PV), and now, LED lighting activities look to be gaining some momentum. And, these are NOT semicon exactly. Growth of ‘real’ semicon and ESDM are still some way off!

Am certain that the concerned stakeholders are taking further corrective measures regarding India’s semiconductor policy in order to provide the necessary momentum required for the growth of semicon and ESDM activities in India.

And please, do something about electronic components!