Electronics Weekly
‘Worldwide political turbulence is being enabled by semiconductors, Dave Bell, CEO of Intersil, told the 2011 Globalpress Summit Conference in Santa Cruz.
“The world is moving at a dizzying pace because of the power of interconnection,” said Bell, “the power of smartphones means people can see what’s happening in their own countries which previously would have been suppressed by governments.”
‘Bell instanced Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain and Syria where the ability of citizens to record and transfer their own images of what is happening on the ground has fuelled revolution.
“It’s the first time in history that has happened – and it’s been happening in the last few months,” said Bell, “it’s an exciting time to be in the industry which is in the middle of it all – semiconductors.”
‘The four key elements allowing people to communicate images and video clips from anywhere in the world are smartphones, 3G connections, data centres which allow the storage of images on a massive scale and broadband access. And the enabler of all four elements is semiconductors.
“The genie is out of the bottle,” said Bell, “people are getting their information from grass roots sources. News channels like CNN and Fox have to rely on Internet sources or risk falling behind.”
‘With Moore’s Law now looking good for another ten years, said Bell, the pace of change will increase’.
