Market and technology trends in the nomadic age

The rapid expansion in the capability of semiconductor products is making it possible for us to have highly intelligent portable electronic equipment, which will provide a new lifestyle in our society: a nomadic lifestyle. Much effort is being made to achieve higher intelligence on a smaller scale at lower cost and at lower power. New-generation RISC processors are going to play an important role together with gigabit memories. In memory development, the financial burden is becoming huge and various countermeasures are required, "system on a chip" and field programmability are becoming important technologies in achieving a higher figure of merit in the coming nomadic age.