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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (10315)	6/10/2004 9:22:57 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

U.S. needs nanoelectronics research institute, says SIA By Peter Clarke Silicon Strategies 06/09/2004, 5:16 PM ET SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) has called for the creation of a Nanoelectronics Research Institute as a necessary part of efforts to maintain the United States' position as the world's leading superpower, and to maintain U.S. engineering jobs. The U.S. semiconductor industry body said Wednesday (June 9) that failure to invest in nanoelectronics now could see the U.S. losing economic and defense leadership within 20 years. A strongly funded national nanoelectronics research institute would be vital in coordinating the research effort needed to make sure it is the U.S. that continues to lead in information technology after CMOS semiconductor technology hits physical limits. "The price for not starting now on a massive, coordinated research and development effort in nanoelectronics could be nothing less than a loss, in just two decades, of U.S. economic and defense leadership," said John Kelly, senior vice president and group executive of the IBM's Technology Group, in a statement issued by the SIA. Kelly spoke at the SIA Leadership Luncheon in Redwood City, California Wednesday. "Economic prosperity and high-value jobs have come from decades of leading revolutions in mainframe computing, personal computing, wireless connectivity, and Internet technologies. All of this and the resulting increases in productivity have been driven by the relentless engine of making semiconductors smaller, more powerful, and less expensive," said Kelly. Kelly added that the U.S. investment in semiconductor research and development was about $1.5 billion per year less than that needed to maintain the CMOS roadmap outlined International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS). The SIA did not indicate whether Kelly gave a figure for how much should be spent on R&D against which he measured the shortfall, but said Kelly argued that the R&D shortfall is even larger if the effort needed to develop technology beyond CMOS is included. The U.S. Nanoelectronics Research Institute (NRI) should be a joint effort between the semiconductor industry, academia, and government. Researchers from university faculties, students, and assignees from industry would be charged with generating new ideas and discoveries and demonstrating the feasibility of creating a new switch with associated interconnects and memory using novel materials and manufacturing techniques by the year 2020. According to the SIA Kelly tied his arguments in to a goal of keeping jobs within the United States. "The U.S. must be a leader in innovation," the SIA statement quoted Kelly as saying. "The U.S. cannot compete in an arena where low-cost labor is the differentiating factor. Constant innovation is the key to being competitive while paying high wages to our workforce." The U.S. semiconductor industry has approximately 163,000 employees, with an average annual total compensation of US$97,000, the SIA said. If research investment is insufficient to support continuation of technological advances in accordance with Moore's Law, the semiconductor engine driving productivity gains will slow down, or perhaps even stall, with adverse consequences for job creation, economic prosperity, and national defense, the organization added. Kelly noted that other regions of the world are accelerating research efforts in nanotechnology and investing heavily in state-of-the-art semiconductor manufacturing facilities in an effort to challenge U.S. leadership. "As we speak, state-of-the-art, 300-millemeter fabs with 90-nanometer process technology are coming on line in other parts of the world. No one doubts that the links between R&D and manufacturing are becoming more important, that these links are dynamic, and that proximity between labs and fabs is also an issue. Public policy must not only encourage R&D activities in the United States, but also provide an attractive climate for investing in production capacity in the U.S."