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Opportunities abound in nex-gen gaming platforms
>> From techonline.com:
[QUOTE]
The next round of game-platform redesigns may still be four to five years out, but chip and software designers in the areas of wireless, microeletromechanical systems, displays, miniature cameras, sensors, actuators and storage have an opportunity to be part of those multi-100-million shipments as platforms respond faster to user demands by converging on interactivity, connectivity and information display.
The Ataris debuted in a different era, at a time of no competition and little pressure from users. That led to a design that was geared more toward cosmetics. "Back then they didn't have to focus on margins and how they can save: it just had to look cool," said Quirk. "Now we design more for cost, heat [management], cooling and [efficient] test." Atari also made a profit on the platform, versus the games. That model has since been inverted, with only Nintendo now managing to scratch out a small profit from the platform, the rest--Sony and Microsoft--make their money on the aftermarket games, said Quirk.
SI expected the current crop of designs to incorporate 65-nm process technologies, down from 90 nm, but that didn't happen, so Quirk believes that'll be coming soon from Sony and Microsoft as part of their cost-reduction strategy. That need for cost-reduction was the main impetus behind the Sony/Toshiba/IBM and Nintendo/IBM/ATI/Chartered partnerships, and while SI expects those partnerships to remain intact going forward, part of the strategy for future cost reductions will be the evaluation of second- and third-tier chip and software vendors as they jockey for a socket in the next round of platform designs.
"There's a lot more competition," said Quirk. "Everyone wants to get designed into them. With volumes in the hundreds of millions, a design win for of these gaming platforms is huge, both from a press and revenue point of view."
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Full Story: techonline.com (2 pages)
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