ebnonline.com
National Semiconductor serves as
solutions provider in
information-appliance market
By Crista Souza
Electronic Buyers' News
(08/18/00, 04:27:09 PM EST)
Silicon Valley
When Acer Inc. was scouting out channels for a Web box it was building, the
Taiwan computer maker turned to National Semiconductor Corp. for help.
National, which had supplied a reference design based on its Geode embedded
processor, acquainted Acer with Internet Appliance Network, a Web-brand
marketing service in need of a hardware platform to link with its customer,
Virgin.net.
The tie-up resulted in a tethered WebPad that provides Internet service and
information tailored to consumers in the United Kingdom. Brokering such
alliances is not a role semiconductor companies traditionally serve, but it's one
National has embraced to enable a market for Internet appliances. While the
ultimate aim is to sell more of the chips it builds (National said it can supply 65%
of the analog- and digital-IC content of non-PC Web-access devices), in most
cases its IA customers don't even consider its deep Silicon Valley roots.
“Three-fourths of the phone calls I get are from people who don't think of us as
a chip supplier,” said Michael Polacek, vice president of National's IA division in
Santa Clara, Calif. “They're looking at us as a solutions provider for getting a
successful information appliance into the market.” Above all, channel partner
matchmaking has helped set National apart from the scores of other chip
suppliers laying claim to this nascent field, company executives said.
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