You will hear an interview with Tensilica’s CEO, Chris Rowen. For each question(23-30), mark one letter(A, B or C)for the co

You will hear an interview with Tensilica’s CEO, Chris Rowen.
For each question 23-30, mark one letter(A, B or C)for the correct answer.
After you have listened once, replay the recording.
You have 45 seconds to read through the questions.
[pause]
Now listen, and mark A,B or C.
[pause]
Woman: Today we have Tensilica’s CEO Chris Rowen! Dr. Rowen.
Man: Great to be here.
Woman: So, Dr. Rowen, you’ve recently had some design wins in the portable space, where ARM is the dominant player. Are you competing with them for sockets, or what’s your strategy for coexisting on the same SoC?
Man: We probably coexist on silicon with ARM at least as much as anyone. But a lot of our design wins in the mobile space come in features that are complementary to the controller. In fact, we see at least as much of the growth in the semiconductor IP space coming from the data plane—the processors that do the significant audio, video and protocol processing—as from the management processors.
Woman: Over the years ARM has amassed system-level and software expertise over a wide range of vertical markets. How can a small to mid-sized IP company like yours compete with that kind of firepower?
Man: In a number of the highest volume areas, ARM is simply not suitable to run the key applications on a generic RISC processor. In the case of audio or video, it would be impossible—or at least terribly inefficient—to run that kind of task on an ARM processor. It’s just not suited to doing audio or video or heavy-duty DSP, whereas our cores are.
Woman: Do you foresee consolidation in the IP market?
Man: I think there are two forces that are balancing out. On the one hand, there are more opportunities for IP suppliers to find a ready audience just because there are so many blocks that are being demanded. That’s why the IP business is the fastest-growing segment of the silicon infrastructure. On the other hand, it’s clear that you don’t want chaos. You don’t really want a dozen different suppliers.
Woman: Who is going to be doing the consolidating?
Man: Customers want families of products that work together well. Broadening your product line is one form of consolidation, and one that we have been pursuing.
Woman: In view of ARM’s earlier acquisition of Artisan, have you identified any technologies that Tensilica might want to acquire to broaden your product offerings?
Man: It’s natural to want to expand into higher-growth areas. But if the acquisitions aren’t closely related to the buyer’s core business, it’s hard to get full synergy out of them: a high percentage of acquisitions fail over time. That said, we’re always keeping an eye out for things that make sense to us.
Woman: How do you envision the semiconductor IP market changing over the next three to five years?
Man: I think that one big trend will be that the leading players will be providing broad, flexible product lines that span both control and data planes, because every SoC will need some of both and it will be easier for the designer to get them from a smaller number of suppliers. Next, I think there are many new opportunities in analog and interface IP, because there are a lot of clever techniques that are being invented for novel signaling interfaces and memory types that will emerge in the IP space. I think that a lot of the foundation IP like memory technology and standard cell libraries will actually be tied very closely to the process technologies, so the foundries will be playing an increasingly strong role in driving the direction for cell libraries. Finally, there are also lots of opportunities for vertical knowledge. If you know all about cellular protocols or advanced video or audio, you’ve got something that can be widely leveraged. There are so many different product types and silicon suppliers because there is a diverse market that can’t be addressed by any one semiconductor IP player or chip manufacturer. Semiconductors and semiconductor IP are pretty distinct business models with complementary roles, and we expect to see the semiconductor IP space strengthen over time.