Q5 interview - Hamid Farzaneh, DisplayLink

Electronics Weekly puts its questions to an industry figure: Hamid Farzaneh, president and CEO of video interconnect technology company DisplayLink, which has an R&D team in Cambridge.

Can you describe your technology in two sentences?

It provides a method of connecting displays to PCs over standard networks. Our current generation of USB graphics products allow a user to add an additional monitor to a PC through a standard USB 2.0 cable.

What do you estimate to be the cost of designing a new chip from scratch?

The typical estimate is $4m-$8m, depending on the complexity of the device - that is assuming you already have the team and tools in place, of course.

Your technology uses USB, but do you see wireless replacing cables in PC interfaces?

Yes, I believe that wireless will be the next big revolution in displays, and we expect wireless displays to start being seen in certain segments as early as this year: for instance, to connect wirelessly to a projector in a conference room or to have a docking station that connects all your peripherals wirelessly to your notebook PC. I believe that wireless USB will be the first technology to deliver the right solution to this market at the right price point.

What makes Cambridge such a good location for undertaking chip R&D?

Primarily it's the people. Cambridge is well known for the high calibre of graduates that come from the University, and many successful technology companies have grown around the area as a result. The technology we create would not be possible without the best people in their field.

What is the most interesting application for PC multiscreens you've heard of?

It's the newly found freedom of creating application-specific displays that are best adapted to each user's working preferences. Examples include separate small dedicated displays for Skype, for calendars, for web browsing, or for social connectivity that can be used in conjunction as the building blocks to create a user's ideal desktop PC.

See also: Q5 - Interviews with electronics industry leaders
Read all the Electronics Weekly Q5 interviews. From ARM's chairman, Sir Robin Saxby, to touchscreen technology firm Zytronic's MD, Mark Cambridge, the business leaders share their particular insights on the UK electronics industry.