Chip-makers focus less on speed, more on features

Almost since the advent of the integrated circuit, semiconductor companies have kept a laser-sharp focus on the fundamentals of their busine...

Almost since the advent of the integrated circuit, semiconductor companies have kept a laser-sharp focus on the fundamentals of their business — super-geeky stuff like processor speeds, transistor counts and silicon wafer sizes. But as computers continue to evolve, so do semiconductor companies. Instead of concentrating just on the nuts and bolts of their business, chip-makers are finally starting to consider how to give computer-users more of what they really care about — things like longer battery life or better sound and screen resolution. They’re also branching out into other products — televisions, entertainment-centric PCs and handheld devices — along with

the rest of the computing industry.

“The whole nature of the semiconductor business is changing,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies Inc. “Semiconductor guys are totally refocusing their market to look at how they go beyond where they already are.” At Intel Corp’s developer forum in San Francisco last week, the world’s biggest semiconductor company and its partners showed off some innovations they’re working on that even the least tech-savvy computer user could love.

Among them:

A laptop that comes with an extra business-card-sized screen on the outside. With the external screen, users can check e-mail or calendars or play music without even opening the computer.

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Intel is working with Dolby Laboratories Inc to add super-high-quality sound capabilities to some of its chip sets. New models of entertainment-centric PCs using the chip sets will automatically come with home theatre system capabilities when introduced later this year.

With partners, Intel is working on integrating ambient light sensors with its chip sets for future laptops. The dime-sized sensors automatically adjust screen brightness, not only making viewing easier but automatically adjusting power consumption.

All that is in addition to other innovations Intel has recently announced, including integrated wireless capability on its Centrino chip sets, technology designed to improve digital televisions and reduce their prices, and chip sets for PCs that serve as digital home entertainment hubs. To be sure, processor performance continues to be the Holy Grail for chipmakers. But with advances over the past two decades, most computer users today have more processing power than they need.

“Most users don’t really need more to make their Excel spreadsheet or Word program run any better,” said Brian Matas, vice-president of semiconductor industry research company IC Insights Inc. “So instead of just offering more horsepower, chipmakers are now looking to add more external features … that might end up intriguing a customer to upgrade their system in a year or two.”

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Intel vice-president Bill Siu said the changing focus at his company has occurred in recent years, along with the continuing maturation of the semiconductor business. “What we’ve come to realise in the last several years is that performance is a given for us,” Siu said. “What we want to do now is to show the end user how those performance capabilities can benefit them.”

Intel isn’t the only chipmaker broadening its emphasis beyond processor speed and performance to customers’ other real-world needs. Intel arch-rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc last week showed off new chips for high-powered computer servers that do more with less electricity.

“This is something our customers were asking for,” said Ben Williams, director of AMD’s server and workstation business. “They were saying, ‘I think this is great equipment, but I just don’t have the power to run it all.’”

AMD’s newest chips reduce the power consumption of servers used in big data centers by 30 to 40 per cent, which can translate to significant savings to corporate customers.