The overall semiconductor outlook for 2012 is slightly positive at best, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be giant leaps in technological innovation during the next year. Markets that were strong in 2011 will continue their dominance in 2012 with moderate growth. These markets include automotive, consumer electronics, and networking systems. Companies will continue to push for smaller and more powerful systems in order to attain market share in the high profit markets. Here are just a few glimpses of what new ideas may be in store for the next year and what it could mean for each respective industry.

In less than a week the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show will have started. Most products showcased at CES will be the first look at a new generation of electronics that will be launched throughout the year. The expo will be dominated once again by mobile phones and tablets.  Growth in this market is perpetuated by the ever improving performance that has been achieved by mobile devices. Prototypes running NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor will be everywhere at CES 2012 and should hit consumers hands by mid-2012. Currently the quad-core processor is only available in a couple of tablets like the ASUS Transformer Prime, but that lineup should be expanded soon. There will be dozens of Tegra 3... read more