Kenji Tsuda, Tokyo
Hitachi Offers 32-Bit RISC Core to VLSI Technology
Hitachi Ltd of Japan has signed a licensing agreement with VLSI Technology, Inc of the US for its SuperH 32-bit RISC processor. The SuperH is a proprietary 32-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processor core for use in VLSI application specific integrated circuits (ASIC) and application specific standard products (ASSP). Hitachi has three kinds of SuperH cores; SH-1, SH-2 and SH-3, and an announced schedule for the SH-4. VLSI will be a primary second source for the SH-3 and later cores.Hitachi expects to promote the SuperH 32-bit RISC processor core worldwide. VLSI, a major producer of AT-compatible chipsets for PCs, is moving into the multimedia market place and will integrate the SuperH RISC core into the next generation digital entertainment chips.
"Under the terms of this new agreement, application of the SuperH RISC core will expand beyond game systems, car navigation systems and digital still cameras to personal digital assistants (PDA), set-top boxes, DVD drives, hard disk drives and other multimedia equipment," said Kosei Nomiya, director and general manager of Hitachi Semiconductor & Integrated Circuits Division. Hitachi had 800 design-wins as of the end of June 1996.
60 MIPS/400mW Performance
The RISC processor integrates a 32-bit multiplier, 8-Kbyte cache memory, memory management unit (MMU), power management circuit, PCMCIA and other interfaces. The SH-3 processor executes one instruction per clock cycle and uses a digital signal processor (DSP) to provide fast mathematical calculations. A fine-line process technology of 0.35µm rule offers a high performance and low power operation; 60 million instruction per second (MIPS) at 400mW power consumption. Hitachi expects to promote the SuperH 32-bit RISC processor core worldwide. VLSI, in turn, wants to use the core to enrich its CPU cores and provide a broader variety of ASIC products.
Lucent Back to Tokyo,
Forward to AsiaKenji Tsuda, Tokyo
Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group formerly AT&T Microelectronics had two major base offices in Asia. The office in Singapore focused on the Asian market and the other in Tokyo focused on the Japanese market. Now Lucent has consolidated the functions of the two offices and put the regional headquarter into Tokyo. Below is an interview with James W Mackin, Asia/Pacific Regional Vice President of Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group:
Japan presents a growing business opportunity for us and we are making a very strong commitment to our customers in Japan. We also undertake many activities that begin in Japan and then migrate to other regions of Asia Pacific. Some of our customers do the designs in Japan and in some cases, outsource manufacturing to Malaysia, Thailand and China.
Certainly, the cost of doing business in Japan is probably more expensive than any other part of the region. We've been fortunate enough to expand our business quite significantly in some cases ahead of the market average. This has helped our expense-to-revenue position. We have a strong team of people in Japan and have been careful to add to that team only when the growth of the business can support it.
We have been careful to watch our expenses which are very much in line with our competitors. This has enabled us to make a strong commitment to the Japanese marketplace and our Japanese customers who work all over the world.
Design in Japan, Manufacture in Asia
Although the majority of companies continue to do a lot of designing in Japan, some Japanese companies are starting to place design in other parts of the world. We think they will continue to maintain many products in Japan. For example, we are currently working on new products that support the PHS market, and PHS will probably be exported from Japan to China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and others. This is one way for us to meet the Asian market demand by designing products in Japan. Japan is the world's fastest growing personal computer market. People want to become more capable of using computers and communications, and as computer use expands with e-mail, internet access and even into the home, our hub in Japan will continue to grow. We think the other regions of Asia will follow Japan's example and the PC market will grow significantly. Lower cost products will be developed as a result.
Lucent's Mackin
Rapid Growth in Asia
Roughly 50% of our external revenue came from the demand for microelectronics internationally. For us, Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region in the world. Recent press announcements attributed the first quarter revenue to strong growth in Asia Pacific.
Our policy has been to follow our customers and establish ourselves in each of these countries by putting in technical resources. Many of our customers are designing products for very focused market niches, like cellular and wireless communications, netcomm (Network telecommunications products), PC, multimedia and consumer products. Our field application engineers can help support design activity in these areas.
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