SoC Summit Honors Dr. Morris Chang with the First Annual Semiconductor Industry Pioneer Award

The SoC Summit semiconductor industry conference on next generation System-on-Chip (SoC) design today announced that Dr. Morris Chang, founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC), is the recipient of the event’s first annual Semiconductor Industry Pioneer Award. Citing the criteria for the award as an individual who recognizes and successfully leads in a compelling new direction, the SoC Summit adjudication panel, headed by Dr. Yervant Zorian, president of the IEEE Test Technology Technical Council, a Fellow of the IEEE, and vice president and chief scientist at Virage Logic, cited Dr. Morris Chang as exemplifying that criterion. The award will be presented at the conclusion of the morning plenary session at the SoC Summit on Tuesday, July 27th in the Yong Le Grand Ballroom of the Westin Hotel Taipei. Those interested in attending the SoC Summit, and witnessing the presentation of the award, may register at www.socsummit.com.

Dr. Morris Chang

In 1987, after a career as a senior executive at Texas Instruments and President of General Instruments, Dr. Morris Chang came to Taiwan to create an entirely new foundry business model for the semiconductor industry. “What TSMC did was to take the manufacturing part and make that our business,” Dr. Chang stated in a keynote presentation to the MIT Sloan School of Management on October 8, 2005. “We declared that we would not do any IC designs ourselves, and therefore we would not compete with our customers.”

Dr. Chang founded TSMC at a time of great change. The IBM Personal Computer (PC) had debuted a mere six years earlier and in 1987, over 15 million personal computers of all kinds were shipped. The PC had become an economic engine, propelling growth for new fabless semiconductor companies such as Chips & Technologies, Cirrus Logic, and others. However, convincing fabless chip companies to use a foundry was no easy task. “We were two generations behind [in process technology] so we had to catch up. It took us 10 years to catch up: ’87 to ’97,” Dr. Chang declared in his keynote.

Over time, fabless chip companies came to recognize TSMC for what it was, the foundry or “fab,” they could consistently rely on for quality production with a business model that complemented their own. Dr. Chang’s new business model anticipated the inevitable evolution of consumer electronics. In 1987, the retail price of a new IBM Personal System/2 ranged from $3,300 to $9,700 in current dollars. With PCs now selling below $1000 and intelligent mobile devices replacing them as the semiconductor industry growth engine, integrated device manufacturers (IDMs)—producing chip design and fabrication—are increasingly choosing to go fabless. Today, the wisdom of Dr. Chang’s vision is abundantly clear.

Today, product life cycles and time-to-market windows, which are measured in months rather than years, demand that circuit design and chip fabrication functions are coordinated to ensure designs flow smoothly without disruption from design to silicon. Dr. Chang anticipated this evolution by strengthening relationships with customers and suppliers, and collaborates even more closely with these partners today. “I believe that we can be far more effective in collaboration than we can by just each minding his own business, doing his own job,” Dr. Chang told customers in an address at the 2010 TSMC Technology Symposium. “TSMC is committed to being a technology and capacity leader, providing customers with the technology they want and the capacity they need,” he said.

Today, the semiconductor industry continues its evolutionary journey and Dr. Morris Chang continues to chart his course with insight as his guide.

About the Semiconductor Industry Award

The SoC Summit’s Semiconductor Industry Pioneer Award recognizes an outstanding individual whose contributions, innovations and achievements have made a significant and measureable impact on the global semiconductor industry. This award has been initiated to celebrate the service and accomplishments of those who have demonstrated great vision and thought leadership, and who have helped advance the industry through innovation, dedication and service.

About the SoC Summit

When Virage Logic acquired ARC® International in November 2009, it inherited the ConfigCon annual conference series that ARC began in 2006, that took place in partnership with Digitimes in Taiwan and Shanghai, and also in Israel and Silicon Valley, typically attracting audiences of nearly 400 attendees. ConfigCon showcased a variety of key industry executives providing keynotes at past events. Click here for a short video of past event speakers.

On July 27th, Virage Logic will continue the popular conference series rebranded under the new name “SoC Summit.” The conference will debut in Taiwan, and will feature a morning plenary session of executive keynote speakers followed by afternoon breakout sessions covering the following topics: The Multimedia Puzzle, On and Off-Chip Communications, and Achieving 28nm Success.

The SoC Summit will provide an informative and educational program focusing on higher level goals for the SoC industry. For more information about the SoC Summit, or to register to attend, please go to: www.socsummit.com.

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