Clemmer has sold business units, paid down debts through some ingenious financing moves, made a few strategic acquisitions, moved shareholdings around and created joint ventures. But mainly he has sold and made no apology for creating a smaller company that is more focused.

And yet the cuts keep coming and coming, with the latest move pushing a significant number of engineers out into the acquisitive Virage Logic Corp. (Fremont, Calif.), which plans to set up shop in Eindhoven.

Is this the logical disaggregation of old-fashioned vertically integrated chip companies; allowing NXP to find a niche as a chip designer sitting between the creators of intellectual property cores and the foundries that manufacture the physical chips?

But if running 160-plus engineers creating IP in Eindhoven can make sense for Virage, why can it not make sense for NXP? Is this a cut too far that really indicates that Clemmer will continue slicing off pieces of the business until there is nothing left? What else within NXP can be cut, sold or outsourced? And is it a good thing?

We'd like to know what you think.