Over the past few years I have been working on how we can build bigger and bigger systems. First it was ARM9 then ARM11, then Cortex A8, then dual core Cortex A9, now it is the Cortex A15. There is a continuous upgrade of technical capabilities that is required. This is the sexy stuff, the stuff that people want to work on. Everybody wants to be working on something that is as cool as the iPAD 3 (shush…that’s “The New iPad”).
There is another market out there, one that quietly is the largest semiconductor market for products. I am talking about the microcontroller. Your fridge now has a microcontroller, as does your car keys, your watch, your phone charger, and lots more. And there are very few people who want to work on them, it is not cool stuff. But look at the market…
- Tools cost over $3000, and people pay for them gladly.
- Microcontrollers have gone way past the stage of 12 Mhz 8051. They are now 160Mhz, dual core speed demons.
- There are literally no expert programmers available. (Or I don’t hear about them).
And the marketplace…
If you look at the business landscape. Nobody wants to take on the iPad. Two years ago there were 50+ companies that want to build e-books. Today even amazon and barnes and nobles tread carefully around the iPad. But it is not just the iPad that I am talking about. iPad is a symbol that the number of devices that are around that can be a front panel into the world has reduced.
But…there is now a market for the connected device. Connectivity used to be about being able to connect to the internet. That definition has changed now. It is about being connected to the devices around us. This could be how I find out the temperature in Milpitas (my home) I look at my phone, which looks at my current position and looks up a web database of temperature sensors, and gives me the temperature closest to me. I want to use my phone as a door lock, I want my photo’s to have my current position (get it from the phone, instead of building a monolithic camera that can do everything). In my home I want to play music from my phone to my home theatre. My iPhone is my remote control to the world. The world needs devices that can use it.
Samyeer Metrani 