DATE keynoter lists challenges to tech complexity

"This is going to force us all to think like systems companies," said Andrea Cuomo, corporate vice president and general manager of Advanced Systems Technology at STMicroelectronics (Agrate, Italy). Cuomo addressed the conference along with Emile Aarts, vice president and scientific program director of Philips Research Labs, see related story.

Whereas Aarts called for using "calm technology" for the home, basically embedded technology that operates in the background and boosts productivity, Cuomo in his "Semiconductor Challenges" talk explained how to meet the demands of algorithmic complexity in tomorrow's systems.

He laid out a series of challenges to meet the resultant convergence of computers and communications systems which serve as the framework for the increasing algorithmic complexity.

The first is to devise a new business model among semiconductor manufacturers, OEMs and telecom operators. "The playing field among these three entities is upsetting today's value chain in the relationships among them," Cuomo said. "We need to find a new business model that works for today's environment."

The "huge amount of business models" that define semiconductor companies is another challenge, Cuomo said. IC companies are involved in many businesses, from providing intellectual property to foundry services. Hence, they don't operate as systems companies. "For instance, we semiconductor companies need deep partnerships with EDA companies to work off each others' strengths," said Cuomo.

Breadth of knowledge and the increased globalization of these databases are additional challenges. "The success of the 'whole network' is more important than the sum of its parts," said Cuomo, alluding to the need for corporations to think locally and act globally.

Finally, chip makers face organizational and cultural challenges. The electronics design and manufacturing communities need to be organized into a mesh that defines the sensing requirements of future systems. Then, Cuomo said, they must mobilize their resources to fulfill the requirements of those systems.

"The real issue is marketing in time, to achieve time to market", said Cuomo.

He added that there needs to be a merging of various disciplines, primarily micro-mechanics, electronics, biology and genetics in order for society to reap the benefits of future innovations.

For example, he cited a research effort in which the brain of a fish was removed and implanted in a small, round robot. The robot eventually behaved like the fish by responding to and moving toward a moving light source. In the another experiment, a neural network was mapped from one lobster to another, making the second lobster behave in the same manner as the first.