Renesas accelerates expansion beyond Japan

Renesas Technology Corp. reports that it has achieved its anticipated revenue due to steady growth in MCUs, system solutions and power/analog devices, despite its withdrawal from the flash memory business.

The company has announced revenue of 950.5 billion yen ($8.8 billion) for 2007, slightly down from 952.6 billion yen ($8.82 billion) in 2006.

Business focus
After exiting the flash game, Renesas is restructuring its business, focusing now on the design and development of flash MCUs and SoCs. Saturo Ito, Renesas CEO, recognized that one of the biggest challenges the company is facing is in the MCU arena. "Yes, we have very large market share already, but the challenge is still raised since the market is highly competitive. To improve our share we will drive the commercialization of the new core 'RX' technology," said Ito.

The RX CPU joins Renesas' highly successful Tiny and SH-Mobile lineups. The RX CPU is a 16/32bit CISC architecture that Renesas will roll out for embedded applications in 2009.

In addition to its MCU business, Renesas is strengthening its system solutions. "We are focusing on the mobile area and some digital consumer products," said Ito. He added that the company will focus on discrete power management devices for PCs and servers.

"We are driving lower production costs for DTV SoCs and high performance analog devices," reiterated Ito. To accomplish this, Renesas is globalizing the Symbian platform and addressing the Linux platform. The company is also developing a platform for Long Term Evolution, the next-generation high-speed network.

Ito emphasized that they are aiming to increase overseas sales ratio by intensifying three focused business domains in growing markets: mobile, automotive and PC/AV.

In terms of business development in Asia, Ito said that they are aiming for more design wins in Taiwan, China, Singapore and Malaysia. Renesas is developing PC peripherals such as keyboard controllers, MCUs, power management devices, and optical storage media including DVD and Blu-ray for these markets. The company will also intensify sales and customer support capability in these areas, particularly by forming propriety partnerships with independent design houses. Furthermore, Ito noted, many customers need turnkey solutions rather than separate products, so a key factor to the company's success will be in combining products for total solutions.

Renesas is also changing its manufacturing strategy. Back-end and test and assembly capacity in factories in Beijing and Malaysia have been increased. The company has also boosted its R&D capability in China and Vietnam.

- EE Times-Taiwan