The Freescale Technology Forum comes back with a bang with plans to exhibit in four different locations–Shanghai, Florida, Tokyo and Bangalore. It started off yesterday at the Shanghai Exhibition Center with a record of more than 1,000 attendees taking part in the forum’s technology labs, lectures and hands-on workshops. The two-day event will bring together local engineers, academicians, partners, executives and journalists to explore into the possibilities of design freedom.
Why start off in Shanghai? “We begin in China where technology is growing,” said Michel Mayer, CEO of Freescale Semiconductor Inc. “I first came here in 1985 as a young engineer working for IBM. I was reading a book then, entitled ‘When China Wakes Up.’ The place was very different 21 years ago, and I can guarantee you that China really has been waking up.”
Freescale is not a newcomer in Asia. Motorola Inc., where Freescale has spun off, has deep roots in China being one of the first to establish an advanced semiconductor manufacturing fab in Shenzhen.
Mayer said that for China to lead the electronics industry, three important factors need to be considered. One is to augment the development of advanced semiconductor technologies. “It is hard to catch up with Taiwan and Korea if China won’t push leading edge investments.”
Another factor–which noticeably the audience nodded in agreement–is intellectual property (IP) protection to attract more investments. This is especially important to Shanghai, where design work, although limited, is being done. “More and more Chinese companies need to protect their technology designs,” added Mayer. Lastly, Mayer cited sustainable manufacturing as the third factor to ensure growth in the industry.
Looking upTwo years outside of Motorola’s umbrella, Freescale has turned around its financial performance after long being considered a cash drain. Today Freescale is focused on gaining new customers in the wireless merchant market, expanding its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, growing its share of the microcontroller and analog semiconductor market and aggressively pursuing opportunities in the consumer domain.
The $5.8 billion company is one of the 10 largest microchip manufacturers in the world today, and boasts seven consecutive quarters of revenue gain. However, the company needs a little boost in brand recognition.
Holding the technology forums in four strategic locations this year will increase people’s awareness to Freescale. This will hopefully set FTF as a well-recognized developer conference for the embedded semiconductor industry.
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