The analog world is already ahead of the curve, said Yong-In Park, CEO of Dongbu HiTek (Seoul), during a keynote address during the Analog Semiconductor Leaders' Forum 2009 here.

''These days, the buzzword is green and power efficiency,'' Park said. ''The analog side already thinks about efficiency, noise and performance.''

Going forward, this mindset will be critical in various markets, such as the mobile world. For example, Nokia's M95 handset consists of 50 discrete parts, according to the Dongbu executive.

Within the cell-phone, there are five memory devices, four MCUs, five logic ICs and nine passive components. Of the 50 parts, some 29 devices are analog-oriented products, he said.

Dongbu itself is one of the players in the analog foundry business. In a separate interview with EE Times, Park indicated that the overall foundry business is projected to fall from 10-to-20 percent in 2009 over 2008.

For Dongbu, it's been a quarter-by-quarter story. Like all foundry vendors, Dongbu saw a major slowdown in the first quarter of 2009. By the third quarter, ''we returned to normal,'' he said.

Now, the company's fabs are nearly full. ''We're seeing strong demand,'' he said.