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To: Jack Hartmann who wrote (58726)	6/25/2002 8:27:03 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 208838

NEC chairman says chip industry recovery likely in 2004 By Nicolas Mokhoff EE Times (06/25/02 16:09 p.m. EST) NEW YORK — The semiconductor industry recovery won't arrive until 2003 at earliest, and more likely not until 2004, according to NEC Corp. chairman Hajime Sasaki. Reiterating points made in a keynote address at the 39th Design Automation Conference in New Orleans earlier this month, Sasaki said in an interview Monday (June 24) that the chip industry needs to shift its emphasis from developing new technologies to nurturing complete and correct designs: "This recession is different in that it has affected all products across the board, not just memory ICs as earlier ones did," he said. "What's more, at the same time there is a shift from computation-oriented to communications-centric products." This shift has brought about three design challenges, Sasaki said: designs have spread to involve entire systems-on-a-chip; design and process engineering are becoming more closely aligned; and the interplay of design, process technology and intellectual property working in tandem has forced the industry to think about "design-oriented profit." "We must nurture an ability to endure, not respond to market fluctuations," Sasaki said. Wireless mobile devices, PDAs and digital broadcast TV are emerging markets that will pull the industry out of its present doldrums, especially in Japan, he said. "To be able to download a motion picture onto your PDA is an activity I am looking forward to," said Sasaki, who added that the younger generation will create a demand for such 3G applications. Sasaki is especially bullish about China: "Japan has 120 million people. Compare that to China where out of 1.3 billion there are 300 million people who have the buying power for new electronic gadgets," he said. "It will be very interesting [to see] what other applications the young generation will demand — this kind of purchase is very dependent upon lifestyles, and the lifestyle for the young ones in China is now changing." As to NEC's proposed spin-off of its semiconductor business into a separate company by November, Sasaki confirmed that the restructuring is on schedule, but left room for considering alternative plans for an initial public offering at that time, depending upon the market conditions needed for a favorable launch.