Since I started looking at the ways Texas Instrumentsworks through its strategies, my belief is getting firmed up that this is one company which can always sail through rough waters during downturn and reap rich benefits during upturn. They regularly review their strategies and can predict ahead of time when the water is about … Read More
Tag: apple
A Brief History of Chip Design at Apple Computer
Steve Wozniak in 1976 designed the Apple 1 while working at HP during the daytime, and he used standard parts to keep costs low, like:
- 6502 CPU from MOS Technology
- 8K of DRAM
- TTL logic for driving video and random logic
- PROM to hold the BASIC language and primitive OS
Is Smartphone Market Maturing?
Yes and No, in my view. Yes to a certain extent, considering that most of the people in developed world have more than one (may be with dual sim card) phone; and No, considering the vast untapped market in the third world countries of Asia and Africa. In India, although much of the population (who can afford a phone) has phone, but not … Read More
The Biggest Supplier in the Biggest Mobile Market is a Company You Have Never Heard Of
If you live in the bay area it is easy to come to the conclusion that Apple has huge market share and is in a very strong position in the mobile market. Everyone has an iPhone.
But the truth is less flattering. Yes, Apple continues to make large profits and it made record iPhone shipments. However, only 51M and Wall Street expected nearly… Read More
A Brief History of the Apple iPod
In January 2001 we had a new American president, George W. Bush, I was working at Mentor Graphics, and Apple introduced an MP3 player called the iPod with a hard drive capable of holding 1,000 songs. In the previous decades we enjoyed portable music from tape-based, CD, or mini-CD devices like the Sony Walkman. The first several generations… Read More
Things to do in Denver when you’re 64-bit
When Apple announced last September their A7 chip had gone 64-bit, the congregation immediately swooned, but analysts reacted skeptically: “So what? Phones don’t need more memory, and there are no 64-bit apps.” Even pundits miss once in a while, and now the topic is how the chip industry is headed for 64-bit.… Read More
Somebody at the NSA has a sense of humor
We have to go way back in the annals of entertainment history to find the origin of the word “Jeep”, not just a term of endearment hung on a WWII utility vehicle. Pictured is Eugene the Jeep, a mystical creature belonging to the 4th Dimension, who first appeared to torment Popeye the Sailor in 1936.… Read More
Quick MEMS Development Through Virtual Fabrication
The design and manufacture of MEMS is very different and in many ways more complex process than even the most advanced ICs. MEMS involve multiple degrees of freedom (i.e. the device to exhibit different characteristics under different physical state, motion or mechanics), making fabrication of MEMS extremely complex; and hence… Read More
Will You Take the Password Pill?
As smartphone and tablet makers desperately search for points of differentiation they will try to push the limits of performance on several fronts to extremes. The password pill and the display-cover display are two of the stranger extreme features on the way.
Extreme inter-connectivity is one of the more useful features that… Read More
Mobile Maturity Leads to Extremes
The smartphone is becoming a commodity, a lifecycle stage where the strong get stronger, the weak get weaker, and the products standardize and start to look alike. This dynamic is driving innovation in existing products to extremes and spawning a new class of wearable devices.
Today two major players are leading the mobile hardware… Read More