Transitioning Semiconductor Companies Enabling Smart Environments and Integrated Ecosystems

Abstract

This paper discusses the business opportunities to the semiconductor companies transitioning from “pure-play” compute-focused chip providers only to complete solution providers enabling smart environments and integrated ecosystems. The semiconductor industry has led to the foundation of the Internet and Information age. The Internet enables connecting smart devices or “things” to be operated without human interactions creating Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT-enabled smart devices are being integrated into a single ecosystem with a shared user interface for healthcare, security, energy saving, automation, autonomous vehicles, telecommunications, computers, entertainment, and so on. Thus, the IoT offers semiconductor companies great business opportunities to provide IoT-enabling components for interoperability as well as system integration and software support. In this paper, the key IoT-enabling technologies and role of semiconductor companies transitioning from component suppliers only to complete IoT solution providers enabling smart environments and integrated ecosystems are discussed.