Electronica 2008 - Read our full show coverage from Munich
The proposed new position of Chief Technology Officer of the USA should be a semiconductor guy, according to Brian Halla, CEO of National Semiconductor.
The President-Elect of the US, Senator Barack Obama, has said he will create the position of CTO of the USA.
"It needs to be someone from the semiconductor industry because semiconductors implement everything", said Halla at a pre-Electronica meeting in Munich today.
Halla welcomes Obama's decision to invest $150bn over ten years in renewable energy technologies.
"I think it's great, absolutely great, that he has a thirst to solve some of these problems", said Halla, pointing out that National has been in this business for the last six years with its Powerwise product line for energy-efficiency which now has over 300 devices.
One product, SolarMagic, increases the power output of and array of solar panels which has been affected by shadows, leaves, bird-droppings and the like.
This kind of analogue domain, where products are about improving the quality of life, is where the next big growth for the semiconductor industry is coming, according to Halla.
"You can feel it", he said, "there are some amazing things happening. Analogue will take us into the next upward cycle of the industry."
The analogue cycle will be different than the last 50 years of the IC industry. "With analogue the thing is not about throwing more gates at problems as Moore's Law would have us do", said Halla, "analogue doesn't follow Moore's Law. Moore's Law is not about power efficiency, it's only about more transistors. There are smarter things for us to do now."
Driving this new upswing for IC demand will be markets in renewable energy, distributed health care, sensing and detection, electric vehicles and battery management, and personal mobile devices, said Halla.
Halla does not think this business area will be impacted by the credit crunch. "Thank God we don't need the credit markets", he said, "the top five analogue companies, ADI, LTC, TI, Maxim and us all have a ton of cash."
The new upswing is the semiconductor industry is coming just as the semiconductor industry financials really need a boost.
"The bloom has gone off the lily", said Halla, "all our share prices are below where they were ten years ago. P/E ratios are in the teens when historically they are 30-50, but the semiconductor industry is essential for everything. Maybe we should all stop shipping for a couple of months."
See also: Mannerisms, the blog of David Manners. Updated twice daily, it's the distinctive, entertaining, authoritative and never dull commentary on the semiconductor industry, from someone who knows. Sign up for the Mannerisms eNewsletter.