Freescale Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rich Beyer will present the opening keynote address at FTF India. Dr. Anil Menon, President, Globalization and Intelligent Urbanization at Cisco, and Sanjay Nayak, CEO at Tejas Networks, will deliver guest keynote addresses. Henri Richard, Senior Vice President and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Freescale and Vivek Mohindra, Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Transformation at Freescale, will also speak.

FTF India 2009 will include more than 50 hours of technical training sessions organized into six tracks: Automotive, Consumer, Industrial, Networking and Enabling Technologies. The event will also feature approximately 22 demonstrations on new technologies from Freescale and its partners.

In its fifth consecutive year, FTF India will bring together professionals and developers focused on embedded solutions for the automotive, networking, consumer, industrial, and medical electronics sectors, across the semiconductor ecosystem, under one roof, to create a unique, energizing and inspiring environment of innovation and collaboration.

“Innovation is the need of the hour as companies across the globe brave the challenges presented by the current economic scenario,” said Ganesh Guruswamy, Vice President and Country Manager, Freescale Semiconductor India Pvt. Ltd.

“India is a strategically important region for Freescale and organizing Freescale Technology Forum during these times demonstrates our continued commitment to the Indian ecosystem. FTF focuses on providing developers with insights into future embedded technologies for various sectors. Through this illustrious forum, it has been our endeavour to influence and foster innovation by showcasing ground-breaking technologies that transform our lives”

Global Sponsors of FTF 2009
· Global Platinum Sponsors: Microsoft Windows Embedded, MontaVista Software, Wind River Systems.
· Global Gold Sponsors: Arrow Electronics, Future Electronics, Green Hills Software.

The PureTime product family helps designers prevent faulty circuits and avoid expensive re-spins. It offers best in class, high-performance constraints validation and timing exceptions verification tools designed to provide users with ultimate confidence in the timing constraints employed across all phases of implementation flow.

PureTime Constraints checks for correctness and completeness of design constraints. PureTime Exceptions uses state of the art formal technologies to verify false and multi-cycle path exceptions.

PureTime 3.2 includes many new capabilities, can be easily integrated with Real Intent’s other families of products, and plugs straight into standard EDA flows. Features include:
* Smart built-in checks to validate constraints (SDC/TCL) against RTL as well as gate-level design sources.
* Formal verification and reporting at the exception-level as well as the exception’s path-level.
* Glitch-aware, combinational and sequential high performance formal verification engines with high completion rates.
* Fast and powerful debugging capabilities with cross probing to TCL/SDC, schematic and design sources.
* Automatic incremental analysis for shorter run times.

“Design constraints are important throughout the whole implementation flow,” said Prakash Narain, President and CEO at Real Intent. “Ensuring the correctness of design constraints and timing exceptions is critical for design and verification teams. Real Intent is dedicated to customers’ success by offering automatic verification solutions employing innovative formal technology in an easy to use methodology. The new functionalities added in PureTime 3.2 represent a significant technological enhancement of the product.”

The PureTime 3.2 is available now.

Talus, Magma’s next-generation implementation platform designed specifically for chips at 45-/40-nm or smaller process nodes, is now widely used among Magma customers and its latest release, Talus 1.1, has demonstrated particular advantages for designs at the 45-/40-nm process nodes.

More than 55 percent of the 45- and 40-nm tapeouts were completed for networking and mobile applications. Other applications taking advantage of 45- and 40-nm technology include multimedia and graphics.

In terms of geographic distribution, about 70 percent of the 45- and 40-nm tapeouts completed to date were by companies based in North America and about 25 percent by companies based in Japan or the Asia-Pacific region.

“As you might expect, networking and mobile applications represent the bulk of chips completed at 45 or 40 nm,” said Premal Buch, general manager of Magma’s Design Implementation Business Unit.

“The designs completed so far at these geometries tend to be complex, in some cases approaching 100 million gates. Talus 1.1 with its COre™ (concurrent optimizing routing engine) and high capacity is ideally suited for implementing chips in these application areas which tend to push the performance envelope as well as have high gate counts.”

Talus 1.1: Fastest path to silicon for 45-/40-nm chips
The Talus system was built to anticipate the unique requirements of chip design at advanced process nodes, and Talus 1.1 takes its capabilities even further. Since its availability was announced in May 2009, Magma customers have found Talus 1.1 to deliver significant improvements in runtime and timing convergence.

It also achieves timing closure with no design-rule checking (DRC) violations and reduces total chip area significantly. Talus also offers a significant capacity advantage over competing systems which allows design teams to work on much larger blocks during the design process.

“Magma’s raison d’etre from our beginning has been to provide designers with the best technology for advanced chips,” Buch added. “That’s why we closely track how many chips are taped out as the semiconductor community transitions to new process geometries.

“The transition to the 45-/40-nm nodes has again created an opportunity for Magma to expand market share. Of course, we are not stopping there and already have the foundation in place to support the next process node at 32/28nm. In fact, we are already seeing some of our customers working on 28-nm designs.”

It is no secret that the major home appliance market has suffered over the past year. In 2009, IMS Research predicts that global MHA shipments will be nearly 10 percent down from a less-than-stellar 2008.

It gets worse for the semiconductor market — the rapid inventory de-stocking will result in a revenue decline of 15-20 percent this year. Despite the market slowdown, the average semiconductor dollar content per appliance is forecast to increase slightly.

Looking forward over the next five years, the prospects appear much better than the current situation. Research analyst Jason dePreaux commented: “The semiconductor market in MHA applications will benefit from two major factors: first, a recovery of appliances shipments is projected following this year’s steep contraction. Simply speaking, more appliances mean more semiconductors to put in them. Second, the average semiconductor content per appliance will rise as increasingly sophisticated electronics get adopted within them.”

IMS Research’s latest report “The World Market for Major Home Appliances” has revealed that there are several trends in home appliance design that are contributing to the rising semiconductor bill of materials. One factor is the increased use of inverter-based variable speed control for motors, compressors, and pumps. This is partly being driven by a renewed global emphasis on energy efficiency and stricter appliance standards within the home.

Another major factor contributing to more semiconductor use is the trend toward electronic controls and displays. Driving graphical UIs with complex menus and multiple languages requires the use of more advanced microcontrollers. This is contributing to 16 and 32-bit solutions taking share from 8-bit and 4-bit products.

Displays and touch controls are being embraced by appliance makers as a way to differentiate their products from competitors and have become more enticing as component costs have come down and they become more familiar designing such systems in-house.

The research reveals that the global power discrete and module market was worth $13.9 billion in 2008 having grown by just 0.7 percent from 2007 due to a dismal fourth quarter.

IMS Research’s latest report on “The World Market for Power Semiconductor Discretes & Modules”, projects the overall market will fall by 22 percent in 2009. Power discretes will see the worst decline, with revenues falling by over $2.5 billion and half of the decline will be from power MOSFETs and protected MOSFETs.

Like most others, this market experienced a terrible Q1 and Q2, however, a steady pickup is predicted for suppliers in Q3.

Market Analyst, Josh Flood commented: “Revenues from power semiconductors are predicted to fall significantly in 2009. However, compared to projections for the overall semiconductor market, the picture is less gloomy. The power semiconductor market is forecast to make a steady recovery in the second half of 2009, and several suppliers have revised their projection for the second half of the year.”

IMS Research anticipates healthy growth for the power semiconductor market in 2010, with market growth of around 7 percent, with many of the larger western economies now beginning to stabilise from the economic downturn.

David Lammers writes in Semiconductor International: “With a goal of opening the industry’s first 300mm analog fab, Texas Instruments Inc. (TI, Dallas) has placed a bid of $172.5M for the 300mm semiconductor production tools at the closed Qimonda DRAM fab in Virginia.”

In that same story, TI spokewoman Gail Chandler said: “The equipment would be used for analog manufacturing using 300mm wafers. It would likely result in the world’s first 300mm analog fab.” That’s really going to be some achievement for TI!

I wonder, what would have been the story for the Indian semiconductor industry had an Indian investor showed some spirit by buying out Qimonda ever since it filed for bankruptcy protection during the winter! Or, some Indian company buying out the fab equipment to equip its own fab in India. Did anyone think of such a possibility?

The companies also will collaborate to develop a platform enabling a wide range of innovative consumer products from Isabella.

The first Isabella product resulting from this collaboration is expected to be Vizit, which enables consumers to interact with billions of unshared images found within camera phones, PCs and the Internet by combining a state-of-the-art touch-screen display with wireless network capabilities. Vizit is scheduled for public launch this October.

“Isabella is a highly innovative startup company with an outstanding vision for the future of connected mobile devices,” said Ken Obuszewski, director of product management for Freescale’s Multimedia Applications Group. “We are pleased to collaborate with Isabella to enable entirely new categories of consumer products based on world-class i.MX technology.”

With the help of Freescale’s architecture expertise, Isabella Products will become one of the first companies exclusively selling “fourth screen” generation products, filling the gap between smart phones and personal computers in every device it puts on the market.

“Freescale is a recognized leader in driving technology forward with its advanced line of i.MX processors, making the company a perfect partner as we launch Vizit and continue to expand our product line,” said Matthew I. Growney, chief executive officer and founder of Isabella Products.

“With Freescale’s support and architecture expertise, Isabella Products will continue to push the envelope in delivering use-specific connected mobile devices that meet the emerging needs of consumers.”

The new devices are ideal for embedded applications or any computing system that is hidden from view and runs a real-time operating system. Such systems include high-end printers, home routers, automotive infotainment systems, outdoor communications equipment, industrial temperature-rated motherboards and ruggedized notebooks.

The IDT embedded clocks have a guaranteed life cycle of at least five years and up to seven years — much longer than traditional PC clocks — providing IDT customers with an added level of reliability.

The new family features embedded clocks that support various standard chip sets used in today’s embedded applications. The IDT embedded clocks provide a single-chip solution for systems using today’s standard chip sets, helping save board space and giving embedded system designers greater flexibility.

The new IDT devices also provide highly accurate outputs supporting Serial ATA and PCI Express. All of the new embedded clocks are SMBus programmable and feature spread spectrum to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI), providing increased reliability and improved signal integrity.

The embedded clocks are available in various packages, ranging from 48 to 72 pins and including SSOP, TSSOP and MLF package types. Many of the devices are also offered in industrial temperature range versions. The devices are currently available and are priced at $2.95 in 1,000 unit quantities.

The kit includes a development board featuring a 44-pin PIC18F46J50 MCU with nanoWatt XLP technology for extreme low power, mTouch capacitive touch sensing, Bosch Sensortec BMA150 accelerometer, 64 KB Flash program memory, and much more. This complete evaluation kit is available at Microchip’s web site, allowing engineers to evaluate the performance and peripherals of the entire PIC18 family for less than $60.

Hardware debugging and programming come integrated with the MPLAB Starter Kit for PIC18 Microcontrollers, meaning an additional debugger or programmer is not required. The kit is completely USB-powered, so a separate power supply does not need to be purchased.

Pre-programmed touch-sensing code, as well as Microchip’s free USB application stack and bootloader, eliminate the need for engineers to develop their own code. Additionally, the board includes demo application software that enables it to read from the memory card (MSD), or function as a USB mouse or joystick (HID), or simple COM port (CDC) using the free Microchip stacks.

By simply scrolling through code options using capacitive-touch buttons, engineers can demonstrate the PIC18 MCUs with a MicroSD memory card, potentiometer, acceleration sensor, and OLED display—functions that are essential for a wide range of low-power applications.

The MPLAB Starter Kit for PIC18 Microcontrollers includes the Bosch Sensortec BMA150 digital triaxial accelerometer, which enables the PIC18 Starter Kit board to detect acceleration in 3 perpendicular axes for sensing the board’s tilt and motion.

The board ships with demo code that enables it to function as a USB mouse or joystick using the accelerometer. Acceleration on all three axes is used to compute the board tilt, which is then converted to movement of the mouse cursor on the X and Y axes. The accelerometer allows the cursor to move slowly when the board is tilted a small amount, and quickly when there is a steeper tilt.

“Our BMA150’s small footprint and very low current consumption provides an ideal complement to the PIC18 XLP MCU,” according to Jim Baka, Bosch Sensortec Sales Manager for North America.

“We are excited about the opportunity to offer our customers a complete system optimized for low power, while leveraging the rich development software suite of Microchip’s PIC18 Starter Kit. Building upon the trend of expanded user interface and extended battery life, engineers now have a powerful tool combining touch and motion in a single platform.”

“An increasing number of portable embedded applications require low power, touch sensing and USB communication,” said Derek Carlson, vice president of Microchip’s Development Tools Group. “The MPLAB Starter Kit for PIC18 Microcontrollers is a complete development system with breakthrough affordability, integrated features and remarkable ease of use.”

The MPLAB Starter Kit for PIC18 Microcontrollers (part # DM180021) is priced at $59.98 and can be purchased today.

The new devices feature advanced 2D adaptive comb filter core and image enhancement techniques, such as auto contrast and video noise filtering. With the ability to simultaneously decode four channels of video input, the new TVP515x solutions are ideal for video surveillance and video conferencing designs that require multiple-channels of decoding in a cost- and space-efficient manner.

These applications include multi-channel digital video recorders (DVR), digital video servers (DVS), hybrid DVRs, cameras for video conferencing and digital signage products.

Additionally, flexible video outputs on the TVP5158 and seamless interface to TI digital media processors based on DaVinci technology (TMS320DM6467 and TMS320DM365) reduce system cost by up to $10 by eliminating the need for an external FPGA. For product details, please visit: www.ti.com/tvp5158-prprod.

TVP5158, TVP5157 and TVP5156 key features and benefits:
* Four high-quality NTSC/PAL video decoders on each TVP515x chip can concurrently decode four video channels and then stream a single output to the DSP, enabling customers to benefit from a lower cost per channel.
* High-quality five-line adaptive comb filter algorithms for all NTSC/PAL standards.
* Multi-chip operation with two TVP5158 devices allow for simultaneous eight channel half D1 or eight channel CIF output.
* Auto contrast improves image quality under poor lighting conditions and off-loads processing from the associated DSP, giving customers more headroom to implement other algorithms.
Video noise reduction with 2D spatial filtering improves image quality and compression ratio under poor lighting conditions for better storage compression.