Ericsson will take on the modem side of ST-Ericsson’s business, with the rest going to STMicroelectronics or being shut down. ST-Ericsson chipsets announced just this year have also been immediately discontinued.
Smart meters, smart thermostats, smart appliances and other smart grid devices have lots and lots of chips in them. Putting all those functions together in one system-on-a-chip can save lots of money and time spent on integration — if they give device makers the right combo.
ARM has released a new low-end core that adds higher-level math to chips inside microwaves and headsets to prepare for a connected future. If we’re gonna connect everything to the web, that means even the tiny brains inside relatively dumb devices need a boost.
Ericsson will contribute $1.1 billion to the proposed joint venture as well as its platform technology used in cell phones and modems. STMicro will fund the venture with $1.2 billion in assets. It will compete with Qualcomm’s Gobi.
A former executive at French semiconductor firm ST Microelectronics is proposing a three-way merger of Europe’s three largest semiconductor companies: ST Micro of France, NXP of the Netherlands and Germany’s Infineon. But while it underscores many of the problems facing the chip industry — and makes for fun headlines! — the proposal is a ludicrous one.
Geographically-based culture differences aside, the three firms don’t need to combine — they need to focus. And their respective actions over the past few years indicate that’s just what they’re trying to do. In an effort to focus on its core markets, Infineon back in 2006 spun out its memory division, then last week it sold its hard disk drive division to LSI. In the meantime, NXP last year exited the VoIP market to focus more closely on six segments, among them consumer electronics, automobiles and cell phones.
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