Matsushita is planning to make extensive use of technology from
Elixent, the Bristol-based start-up which it acquired last
summer.
“We’ll be using it for AV [audio/visual] coding and processing in
consumer products,” Andy Elms, director of the Panasonic Strategic
Development Centre Europe, told EW.
The reason why Elixent’s reconfigurable technology will be used in
so many products is because Matsushita, via its Panasonic brand
name, has an integrated platform strategy which allows a basic chip
design to be adapted for use across a wide range of products.
Panasonic calls its platform UniPhier. The idea is to produce a
basic chip which can be adopted for phones, auto AV, personal AV,
home AV and home security.
“New algorithms are being developed every three months, new
products are being launched every six months, and chips are turned
around over an even longer cycle,” said Elms. “The reason why
Panasonic wanted re-configurability, is because of its ability to
change the functionality after the chip is set in silicon.”
By putting re-configurability into platform chips, Panasonic can
make sure that the chip incorporates all the latest standards when
it is put into an end product.
Asked if Panasonic would be adding to the design centre team which
is based on the Elixent acquisition, Elms replied: “In terms of
headcount, Elixent was sold on the basis that the current team can
deliver the next generation of D-Fabrix [Elixent’s technology] for
65nm and 45nm processes. That should be delivered in the next two
years. The Bristol design centre has to show it can deliver on that
expectation. In Bristol we have to show we can deliver value in an
expensive part of the world. That means we have to deliver on our
belief that we can do novel stuff.”