Software Based Electronic Devices – Trend towards usability & commoditization
Posted by Narendra Rao on July 24, 2007
Electronic devices conjure up the images of boxes with displays, keyboards & connectors. The spectrum of such devices are large, like industrial automation systems (field measurement devices, controllers, display consoles, hand held devices, computers etc) consumer electronics devices (laptops, PCs, televisions, gaming consoles, mobile handsets, security devices etc). Traditionally, they stay at the center of value chain between high technology semiconductor chips & device/application software.
Semiconductor Industry: Semiconductor chips power electronic devices. Almost every device has some processors & other signal handling chips. Automobiles have upwards of fifty processors, controlling everything from engines to glass wipers. Consumer devices like cellular phones, TVs, DVD players, security systems & all industrial instrumentation systems rely on semiconductor chips.
Industry has moved a long way from first transistors from Bell Labs in 1947. Combining these transistors in millions on a single chip constitute a semiconductor device like processors, memory or bus drivers. Initial chips lacked performance & reliability. Early music systems had poor sound quality & bulky, Industrial measurement equipments drifted from its set points that required frequent recalibration, most of control instrumentation were manual, security devices were at best alert systems (with lot of redundancy) to manned systems. Initial electronics circuit designs involved deep understanding of semiconductor devices as well as system performances. Larger number of components was required to realize most function, with additional components for various compensations like drift, temperature, offset etc.
Industry has seen considerable sustained innovation since last 50 years. Industry consists of basically three types namely, integrated devices manufacturers (both design & manufacture), Fabless design houses & Foundries, which do contract manufacturing (Like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company). Fabless design houses are flooding market with various custom chips with cost per function at significantly lower than earlier generation. The entry barriers for most of low/medium speed chips are further reduced. As Intel has moved towards more of high end, high speed, R&D intensive, upscale processors, and other manufacturers are concentrating on operation (efficiency) driven custom & usability aspects. For most of applications in industrial instrumentation, security & consumer products, the demand for chip performance is significantly reduced. Niche applications like multimedia, 3D gaming, voice processing etc that demand huge processing power constitute a small market. Net effect of all this is that most of semi-conductor chips are getting commoditized with only differentiation in usability & operations (price).
Software Industry: If we simplify the software industry to mostly contents & applications, the technology play is significantly reduced. Leaving apart some special algorithms & data processing, most of performance & reliability issues are satisfied. However, major driver for the industry is the ability to satisfy the underlying user need & enhance the user experience. Next generation could be the ability of the product to customize to user’s personal preferences & needs. There is more & more demand for companies to come up with applications that could satisfy various problems, improve efficiency, cut costs or enable various business functions etc. More importantly, this industry is most nearest to customers/end users in value chain & hence “owns the customer”.
Electronics’ Device Manufacturers: That leaves electronics device manufacturers in the middle of value chain. Traditionally, they have been designing products using semiconductor chips & enabling the platform for software application developers. During semiconductor technology evolution stages, they had to design products with deep understanding of semiconductor devices, ambient & operating conditions. Circuit design would involve various compensations for performance & reliability, ambient effects, operating environmental effects (like noises) etc.
As semiconductor technology is evolved & matured with sustained innovation, most functions’ performance & reliability requirements are met. For example, now electronics amplifier designers just don’t have to think much about offset or bias current drifts or play with limited bandwidth or common mode effects. If they could follow judicious process in selecting right device referring to manufacturer data sheets & application notes, most of design functions can be realized. The effect of this is that companies with limited competency in design or manufacture are now able to produce equal to or better devices than before. The design philosophy has shifted from in depth science & technology analysis to much simpler engineering & system integration of functions. Semiconductor manufacturers are pushing through the value chain by producing custom chips, hardware modules or reusable/reprogrammable components.
In summery, as electronics design is getting commoditized in terms of functional performance & reliability, the focus has shifted towards scalability & usability. It is more of an engineering art. In future, the trend shall shift towards ability to quickly configure & customize. For remaining applications, it shall drift towards commoditization.
