On-demand design service innovations

Abstract

Offering design services for manufacturers of embedded devices has become a very important business, one in which the three leading customer requirements are time to market, integration of leading-edge technologies, and cost reduction; in short, ondemand design services. In this paper, we discuss on-demand design service innovations of several types. First, we discuss our unique field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based system emulation tool. Although embedded systems comprise a wide range of technologies and components, some important technologies and components are common to most embedded systems. Security and communications are two of these, and we have developed offerings in these areas as well. For security, we developed scalable intellectual property macros to meet the requirements for many kinds of cryptographic circuits. These macros can satisfy specific requirements-performance, size of the silicon area, and power dissipation-for many kinds of embedded systems. For communications, we developed an autonomic network configuration tool which allows an end user to avoid the potential frustration of setting up a network connection and which also automatically performs network security tasks.

How do a company's information technology competences influence its ability to innovate?

“…Because of the importance of innovation, many researchers have analyzed its antecedents, hoping to determine what a firm must do if it hopes to become more innovative (Amar, 2004; Hadjimanolis, 2000; Hult et al , 2004; Scott and Bruce, 1994; Warren et al , 2000). Although some of this research broadly discusses how IT is developed into the innovative product or process under study and how emerging IT may be used for leading edge innovation in products and processes (see, for example, Bielski, 2004; Kodama, 2005; Shimizu et al , 2004), in other cases IT seems to be ignored entirely as an antecedent to innovation (for example, O'Connor and Ayers, 2005; Hadjimanolis, 2000; Hult et al , 2004). Moreover, the role of IT in the innovation process and its potential contribution therein remains largely unstudied.…”