Rich Beyer, CEO Freescale Semiconductor talks to Electronics Weekly about the automotive market, the QorIQ multicore processor and new microcontrollers...
1. What level of upturn do you see in the market?
My heart says it is all upside, my head says something more cautious.
Automotive market is regaining footing and heading positive. The networking market is showing life, but still needs to see return to employment growth in the economy to drive enterprise spending. The industrial market is tied to the macro economic condition and here China is going great guns, but less so in Europe and the US.
On the whole the situation is a lot better than last year, but I can't categorically say it is all going up and to the right.
2. Has your business strategy changed post-recession?
In 2008 we took a decision to get out of wireless chipset business.
At that time we identified the automotive and networking businesses for specific investment. The industrial business we streamlined somewhat but still with investment in specific growth opportunities. Consumer also had its opportunities.
I revisited this strategy in 2009 and decided to stick with it.
3. What are the strongest market opportunities you see at the moment?
In automotive, it is telematics and infotainment in particular which are proving to be very powerful. Active safety systems such as airbags and tyre pressure monitors are another interesting area for us.
I also see wireless basestations is a big opportunity for us, in particular for our QorIQ multicore processors and DSP devices.
Microcontrollers are being designed into industrial and consumer appliances which is an opportunity particularly in emerging countries.
In the consumer market e-readers are an exciting opportunity with number of units predicted to grow from tens of thousands to millions in just a few years.
4. How would you characterise the company's microcontroller business?
We have established proprietary architectures in 8-, 16- and 32-bit microcontrollers. We are looking at expanding our microcontroller product families, but also will be expanding the eco-systems and development tools.
There will be product launches in 2010 which I believe will move these microcontroller product families into new markets including low carbons systems.
5. Name one market and one technology to watch in 2010?
Market - In terms of size it is automotive. In terns of the growth opportunity it is consumer devices such as netbooks and e-readers for our applications processors and power management products.
Technology - Access to leading edge process technology is still the key for a semiconductor company. For us that means the ability to use 45nm process technology in our QorIQ processors and DSP devices.
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