Enabling 50 IC Design House In Malaysia

The Issue

It seem impossible to create those number while existing 27 IC Design House by 2020 are in desperation to survive. Then, how can we go through this?

Objective

My writing is about my understanding and what I think can help government to plan on steps to success in this area.

The Industrial Status

Currently there are 27 mixed local and foreign IC design house in Malaysia. Some of them are struggling to survive due to lack of customer. Why? These struggling companies usually have the talent to do things but not the talent to sell them. In addition, Malaysia has no strong local electronics and electrical appliances manufacturer to outsource their design works. While the leaders in design house usually have their own initiative to to sell the products and some create a good networking with strong MNCs.

For the support in this industry, many university has take note on the needs of this sector. They have started to collaborate with MNCs to developed their graduates to be a working graduates. Training centres and plug & play centres are ready to accommodate the industry needs. Local wafer fab is ready to support the production. In short, everything is ready for IC design house to operate in Malaysia.

The Way Forward / Solutions

As we know, there are few strong International design house stationed here in Malaysia. Two key words I'll use are, Pyramid & Networking. How?

Make use of the existing International design house to develop local vendor programme. How this programme can benefit them? For example, The A company is a leader in design house. They may have many demand on their products. With demand, the need to increase their supply. With Increment of the supply, there will be increment in cost (in design, the cost is mostly on licensing and overhead/manpower). How to reduce? Hire a niche local design house for niche product. Later, existing plug & play centre can provide the tools for their operations by projects. If one leader can engage 5 local design house, all we need to get is another 9 to success.

Nick Name

Dolphin - They inspire

Dolphin

Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genera.Dolphins are among the most intelligent animals and their often friendly appearance and seemingly playful attitude have made them popular in human culture.

Dolphins occasionally leap above the water surface, sometimes performing acrobatic figures (e.g. the Spinner Dolphin). Scientists are not certain about the purpose(s) of the acrobatics. Possibilities include locating schools of fish by looking at above-water signs like feeding birds, communicating with other dolphins, dislodging parasites or simple amusement.

A number of militaries have employed dolphins for various purposes from finding mines to rescuing lost or trapped humans. The military use of dolphins, however, drew scrutiny during the Vietnam War when rumors circulated that the United States Navy was training dolphins to kill Vietnamese divers. However, no evidence to support these rumors ever surfaced, and the United States Navy denies that at any point dolphins were trained for combat. Dolphins are still being trained by the United States Navy on other tasks as part of the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program. The Russian military is believed to have closed its marine mammal program in the early 1990s. In 2000 the press reported that dolphins trained to kill by the Soviet Navy had been sold to Iran.

(source: Wikipedia)

Red Alert 3 : Bottlenose Dolphin (Allied)

Battlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are incredibly intelligent marine mammals. Specially-trained dolphins are an integral part of the Allied Navy, which used them as scouts and cheap defence against enemy ships.

Dolphins are deployed by Allied commanders primarily as scout units. Allied commanders have fitted the dolphins with special equipments which amplify their sonar pulses, allowing them to actually damage enemy ships. They are highly effective in groups, as their sonic pulses could damage multiple targets at once.

Dolphins had also been trained to jump out of water for a brief moment, allowing them to dodge torpedoes and other weaponry. If they do get hurt, they usually die quickly due to the lack of any serious armor, though they can be healed by an engineer's medical tent.

"Dolphins are not lake creatures! What is going on here?" - Conscript in op. March of the Red Army

(Source : http://cnc.wikia.com)

SeaBreacher

Innespace Seabreacher (or Sea Breacher) is a two-seat submersible personal watercraft, designed by Rob Innes and Dan Piazza of the American company Innespace. It is the production model of the single-seat Innespace Dolphin. The concept came from VASH (variable attitude submersible hydrofoil), which was invented by Thomas "Doc" Rowe[1] and Dennis "Dusty" Kaiser in 1987 with his boat, Noland Won.

This larger two seat vessel is powered by an Atkins Rotary Marine engine coupled to a Hurth V-drive transmission.

The vessel's shape is based on the shape of a dolphin, and imitates a dolphin's movement.

(Source : Wikipedia & http://www.seabreacher.com)

Note : From Nature to Entertainment, and now they try to Implement it. That's what brain is all about.

Silicon Valley - Moving Up The Value Chain

Silicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California,United States. The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chipinnovators and manufacturers. Despite the development of other high-tech economic centers throughout the United States, Silicon Valley continues to be the leading high-tech hub because of its large number of cutting-edge entrepreneurs, engineers and venture capitalists.

Since the early twentieth century, Silicon Valley has been home to a vibrant, growing electronics industry. The industry began through experimentation and innovation in the fields of radio, television, and military electronics. Stanford University, its affiliates, and graduates have played a major role in the evolution of this area.

It was in Silicon Valley that the silicon-based integrated circuit, the microprocessor, the microcomputer, among other key technologies, were developed, and has been the site of electronic innovation for over four decades, sustained by about a quarter of a million information technologyworkers. Silicon Valley was formed as a milieu of innovations by the convergence on one site of new technological knowledge; a large pool of skilled engineers and scientists from major universities in the area; generous funding from an assured market with the Defense Department; the development of an efficient network of venture capital firms; and, in the very early stage, the institutional leadership of Stanford University.

Although semiconductors are still a major component of the area's economy, Silicon Valley has been most famous in recent years for innovations in software and Internet services. Silicon Valley has significantly influenced computer operating systems, software, and user interfaces.

Eventually, Silicon Valley is known all the high-tech businesses in the area; it is now generally used as a metonym for the high-tech sector. Software, Tools and other IT products are produce here replacing the traditional manufacturing facilities.

(from Wikipedia)

Future of Green Technology

Nowadays, Green Technology is a talk around the world. I'll provide some of current technology related to Green Technology.

1. Solar Power - Lead by 5 Mega solar company, solar power is one of the new resource for green technology. With abundant supply of sun rays, the usage of other option of electricity generation will be reduce. Currently, the best efficiency recorded for solar panel is up to 33% of its penetration can produce energy.

2. LED - The high luminance technology can replace the conventional light bulb and florescent tubes in the light industry. The raw material is basically 'sand' and power consumption is much more lower.

3. Water - 2/3 of Earth is cover with water. New research has been undertook around the world to use water as the alternative power supply. Forecast, this technology should be release into the market within this decade.

4. Power Inverter - Technology that can regenerate energy while using them. More and more new products in the market is equipped with such technology to support the current concern.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Flip-Chip Packaging Becomes Competitive

Sally Cole Johnson, Contributing Editor -- Semiconductor International, 5/1/2009

Looking back 15 years ago, nearly everything was wire bonded. Today, flip-chip packaging is taking over. The basic flip-chip concept is to take a chip, place conductive bumps on the connection points, flip it over, put it face down and directly attach it to the circuit. Flip-chips eliminate excess packaging, while providing highly desirable benefits such as miniaturization, high-frequency operation, low parasitics and a high I/O density.

Flip-chips can be found in nearly every hot consumer gadget from cell phones and pagers to MP3 players and digital cameras. In the server space, virtually all logic modules are flip-chip packaged. And most ASICs, gaming, graphics processors, chipsets, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and digital signal processors (DSPs) are now also flip-chip modules.

The cost of gold bonding wire has been on the rise the past few years — making flip-chip even more appealing. "If we look at the cost two to three years ago, flip-chip was inherently more expensive," said Raj Pendse, vice president of flip-chip and emerging products at STATS ChipPAC (Singapore). "Flip-chip substrates typically cost two to three times the amount of a wire bond substrate, but the rising gold costs have evened out the differential in package costs. The flip-chip is becoming more cost-effective over a broader range of applications. In the past, it was used in the 1000 pin count range. It's becoming cost-effective in the 200–700 pin count range.".

2009 New Market - LED and Solar

For 2009, LED and Solar Module is predicted to get a higher demand. Both of the items can save energy, by using low power and by producing power with help of nature, have been popular since the awareness of environmental issues.

LED - Light Emitting Diode. It can be classed into several types. Currently, tycoons all around the worlds is racing to produce cheapest, brightest, safest and most efficient LED ever. In conjunction with the "Banning the Incandescent Light Bulbs" campaign around the world, LED is the best solution. Consumer can regain their cost just not more then 2 years by saving the energy only. Plus, the LED is known for long lasting. Usually, a LED can even last for up to 15 years.

Solar Modules. This technology is known for many years before but only have further developed around 5 years back. This technology is known for safe power generator/producer. In some country, power from solar panels are sold back to the government to help reduce the unhealthy power generation. Many 'Giants' has establish in this field and mostly from Europe. Sun is our unlimited source of power. Via using solar energy, ones can save more money while save the earth.

Malaysia Electronics Industry 2008

The effect of world recession has arrived to Malaysia. The most affected industry are E&E seen most of its player is from the centre of the crisis, USA.

Starting from early 2008, many company start having problem with supply and demand. Since the collapse of Lehman brothers, investors became more careful in what they invest in. Follow by the decrease of value for 3 automotive tycoon in August. In November, Citibank has declared 50% drop of its share in the market. More issues grow even the Presidential Election has over. Can Obama change the situation (as per his campaign)?

In Malaysia, the country was first shocked by the shut down of a toy company in Penang, Nikko Electronics. More then 900 workers is unemployed. The latest is, Western Digital in Sarawak has seizzed its operation and more then 1500 workers is out of work.

Many economist predict that the worst is still not here. 2009 was said to be the peak of the slowdown. What it has to do with us? Well, government got income from these MNCs. They were source of income for our nation. Without them, the unemployment rate will rise, and the national income will go down.

Pentax - New Digital Definition for Starters

What would you choose for cheap camera with high quality.

Canon, Nikon, Sony and more are world famous for their digital imaging and camera. A Japan originate company - PENTAX, has reached its international level since 1962 but has caught recognition lately via their digital imaging products.

PENTAX Optio E60, latest of E series, has offered real value for money. With 10.1 megapixels, multifunction, face and smile recognition, video capture, use AA battery for power and more intereting features, has offered a good bargain for someone who wish to enter digital imaging world. The price, RM450++, has scored the lowest price for high quality camera (more then 7 megapixels).

C902 - 2008 Real Value For Money

C902 (July 2008) - was promoted in 2008 James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, and for sure it's a cool gadjet suit for a spy. It has all function needed as a hand phone (only w/o wi fi).

This version is an upgrade version from its previous model, K850i (Dec 2007) and C702 (early 2008). With 5 mega pixels camera, bluetooth, 3 G function and also touch screen, this model is a real value for money. On release, it was RM1499. Currently you can have it for RM1200 (RM950 for AP phone - limited waranty). Click here for more info.

For now, the only competitor its have for value is Nokia N95 8GB (Nov 07) - RM2500.

Malaysia Semiconductor Supply Chain

Moving into 2008, Malaysia had succeed to create many cluster toward emerging technologies. In Electronics industry sector, year 2007 has noted investment of more then RM13 billion, RM3 billion more then targeted earlier. This ids due to stability of the nation and constant consultation from various agencies.

One of Malaysia main cluster is Semiconductor. This cluster comprised of companies from USA, Japan, Korea, Europe and more. The supply chain that was dream before now a reality since the whole supporting industry is available locally. From ingots grower to packaging.

Well, even thought the current situation of low trade and investment in first half of 2008, the second half seem to promise more and better inflow.

Sony Ericsson taking over Malaysia market for mobile phone?

During '90s, Malaysia top brand for mobile phone is Nokia since it was the cheapest advance gadget that time (other then military like mobile phone or syrup bottle which you can take to school). Monochrome screen and monophonics sound were the best. "Snake" from Nokia was the attention. The only fun mobile game to kill your waiting time.

But, since Y2K, Motorola start to enter the competition with their product. Sony, Ericsson, Alcatel, Samsung, Siemens and others were introduce. New technology to introduce colour screen and polyphonics sound replace the old technology. By 2002, Motorola emerge with "i moto" theme. User start to look for good quality and multifunctional gadget. Mp3, Radio, Camera and more start to attention. Not long after that, 3G was introduce to the country.

Nowadays, mobile phone is not just for talk or SMS. MMS, Video Call, TV, Internet and more can be done. Everything just on your finger tip.

Telephone + Computer + TV + Video Games + Radio = 2008 mobile technology...

Nokia was no longer a prefer technology since Sony has merge with Ericsson (the best technology for graphic and sound system for mobile products). Even thought, Nokia is the cheapest brand for up-to-date technology, but still consumer prefer others.

Rank for todays favourite brands for mobile phone:

1. Sony Ericsson
2. Samsung
3. Motorola
4. Nokia

(Siemens already out of the market)

What can we expect for future???? This rank is only for mobile phone, not consider PDAs yet where the competition is quite interesting.