ISA WINWire February 19 - 26 2010

Seminar and outreach session by IEEE in Bangalore - March 9 -12

For more details and to register for the outreach sessions, please visit    standards.ieee.org

A wish list of features for the next round of cellphones

Source: Nick Bilton, The New York Times, February 18 2010    bits.blogs.nytimes.com

In 2007, Steven P. Jobs stood on a stage in front of hundreds of technology reporters and presented the iPhone, Apple’s latest foray into electronics. At the time, most of the people sitting in the audience were using mobile phones that are now obsolete, including the Palm Treo, Motorola Razr, some early BlackBerry devices and the odd Windows Mobile phone.

Azure plans 2 solar plants in Karnataka

Source: Madhumathi D.S., The Hindu Business Line, February 18 2010    www.thehindubusinessline.com

Solar energy producer Azure Power plans to start a solar plant each in Kolar and Bagalkot and add 12 MW to the grid in 18 months.

Mr Inderpreet S. Wadhwa, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Delhi-based Azure Power India P Ltd, said he was awaiting the signing of the power purchase agreement in April with one of the State utility companies and NTPC's nodal body, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd, for the first, 2-MW Kolar project.

A year of UID: Much more than a number

Source: Leslie D'Monte, The Hindu Business Line, February 20 2010    www.business-standard.com

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), set up to issue a unique identification (UID) number to all 1.2 billion Indian residents, completes a year this month.

“We will be issuing the first set of UIDs between August 2010 and February 2011,” asserts former Infosys co-chairman Nandan Nilekani, who now heads the UIDAI. It’s a little over six months since he took charge, and he expects to issue 600 million UIDs over the next five years.

For chip makers, the next battle is in smartphones

Source: Ashlee Vance, The New York Times, February 22 2010    www.nytimes.com

The semiconductor industry has long been a game for titans.

The going rate for a state-of-the-art chip factory is about $3 billion. The plants typically take years to build. And the microscopic size of chip circuitry requires engineering that practically defies the laws of physics.

Budget should boost domestic industry: ISA

Source: India Blooms News Service, February 22 2010    www.indiablooms.com

In the memorandum, ISA has recommended the government to attract investments, increase fiscal benefits and grants, raise R&D focus in India and secure SMEs and MSMEs; thereby boosting domestic industry.

BV Naidu, Chairman, ISA said, “There are huge growth opportunities for the electronic industry in India, but there have been some missed opportunities in the past decade. So, while the future holds a lot of promise, we need to address existing challenges in infrastructure, taxation, supply chain and logistics, labour laws, R&D and funding.”

Kumar Sivarajan named tech visionary; Verismo's internet TV device named best product by ISA

Source: K.C. Krishnadas, TechOnline India, February 24 2010    www.techonlineindia.com

The India Semiconductor Association (along with U.K. Trade and Investment) has conferred the TechnoVisionary award for 2010 on Kumar N Sivarajan, co-founder and chief technology officer, Tejas Networks.

In the area of optical networking over the last nine years, Sivarajan has contributed vastly to the design, architecture and development of a slew of next-gen SDH SONET and Carrier Ethernet products that allow telecom carriers to integrate voice, data and intelligent network management on a single network. Kumar was instrumental in Tejas being one of the first companies in the world to have developed and deployed standards compliant Carrier Ethernet-over-SDH SONET. Sivarajan is responsible for setting the technology and product direction for Tejas Networks.

Semicon industry's wishlist to the union gov't

Source: EETimes, February 25 2010    www.eetindia.co.in

On the eve of the union budget, here are some of the budget recommendations submitted by the India Semiconductor Association (ISA), via a memorandum to the Government of India. If the memorandum is favourably considered, the ISA and the industry believes it will greatly enhance the competitiveness of the domestic semiconductor industry.

The ISA has been making concerted efforts to boost the Electronics System Design and Manufacturing ecosystem (ESDM) in India and recognises the need for reforms to empower the domestic Electronic System, Design & Manufacturing sector.

Gartner predicts 20 percent growth for chip industry in 2010  

Source: Dan Nystedt, PC World, February 25 2010   www.pcworld.com

The global chip industry will rebound sharply from the global recession and post 20 percent year-on-year growth in 2010, market researcher Gartner said Thursday.

The growth forecast is slightly higher than others have predicted but is in step with bullish forecasts for the global semiconductor industry this year. Strong demand for a variety of chips has contributed to strong earnings growth at chip makers from microprocessor giant Intel to memory chip king Samsung Electronics.

Cypress sets up one more PSoC Lab for education  

Source: EETimes, February 26 2010   www.eetindia.co.in

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. and DOEACC Centre Calicut have teamed up to set up a joint programmable system-on-chip (PSoC) laboratory at DOEACC. As part of the agreement, Cypress will provide hands-on training sessions for the faculty and students of DOEACC, in addition to free hardware and software tools. DOEACC will provide the facilities for the laboratory.