Chip makers stress software solutions

Chip makers stress software solutions
MUNICH, Germany — The maturing global semiconductor industry will increasingly rely on software for systems design as process technology peters out, top European semiconductor executives said Tuesday (Nov. 10) at an industry forum here.

After 2000, the IC industry will see more "software-driven electronic system level products design," said Arturo Krueger, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola Semiconductors' Advanced System Technology Laboratory. "Unfortunately, we are running out of gas" on process technology, Krueger said.

Others executives at the Electronica '98 conference agreed. Reusable intellectual property cores and software will become more important as the industry moves closer to system-on-a-chip technology and digital consumer products, said Stuart McIntosh, chief operating officer of Philips Semiconductors.

The shift toward greater dependence on software in semiconductor design is part of a larger challenge facing integrated IC companies that are struggling to remake themselves in the face of excess manufacturing capacity and slumping product demand. Pasquale Pistorio, president and chief executive of STMicroelectronics, also listed software as a key technology that must be nurtured by IC makers. "You must own and control a variety of expertise," including software, Pistorio said.

Still, a shift to greater emphasis on software in future chip designs comes with risks, observers said, and will add to the already difficult testing and verification of new designs.

What's more, chip makers would eventually run up against software giant Microsoft Corp., which has a history of resisting chip makers' attempts to use software solutions in their designs. For instance, court records released in connection with the U.S. government's antitrust case against Microsoft confirmed that it successfully prevented Intel Corp. from pursuing its own native signal processing solution for Internet applications.