Mannerisms

Beyer's target is to increase Freescale's EBITDA margins from the low 20s of per cent to the low 30s of per cent, and increase gross margins from the low to mid 40s of per cent to the low to mid 50s of per cent.

"If we get on that kind of vector, when the macro environment returns to health and the semiconductor upswing happens, we will have a healthy foundation for the company", says Beyer.

So how will he increase margins?  "First we need to make more investment in products that produce higher margins - like networking which has 60 per cent gross margins."

"Second", says Beyer, "we need more analogue products which are higher margin.

"Third, microcontrollers are significantly deployed in automotive, we want to expand demand in industrial. Microcontroller margins are in the low 60s."

"Fourth, efficiencies in how we do things", adds Beyer, "manufacturing efficiencies. Get more done with fewer people in manufacturing, and increase the efficiency in how we design products."

How about moving faster down the process learning curve? "Only in the pure digital world does moving down the process curve help margins", replies Beyer, "microcontrollers for the industrial market are not about small size, they're not about bleeding edge performance, they're about longevity. You're better off making them on 0.8 or 0.35 micron processes. Only when the size of the embedded memory is big do we need advanced processes. "We use mature fabs with mature processes, so the yields are superb."