Automotive and consumer electronics will become the new growth point for NOR flash

In 2011, our NOR flash memory market will continue to grow. We see that the demand for NOR flash memory will continue to increase in embedded markets such as computers and communications, automotive and industrial, consumer and gaming. New applications also include smart grid-enabled infrastructure, as well as applications such as machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless modules. There will also be an increasing demand for NOR flash memory. Most embedded applications use higher quality, reliable NOR flash. The integration of system coding and data is critical to the performance of these applications and does not allow any error. Especially for products such as set-top boxes that focus on protecting customer IP, security is also an important consideration.

In the automotive electronics market, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), navigation, and digital dashboards all show increasing demand for flash memory. In automotive applications, products are required to meet stringent certification standards for higher quality and reliability. Product life is another important factor - automotive equipment manufacturers often require more than 15 years of continuous product support. Spansion stands out in this area and has the ability to provide long-term product support. At the same time, Spansion also has important capabilities for high performance and wide temperature range products.

For consumer electronics, NOR flash will continue to be widely used in digital TVs and set-top boxes. As most of the emerging markets except for the set-top box and digital TV market are new and growing, we do not think that NOR sales will increase immediately. The development of smart grids and related infrastructure products depends on government measures, institutional support, and whether consumers are willing to change the way they use and monitor electricity.

In the long run, the growth of the set-top box market may be strongly stimulated by the popularity of Internet content. Consumers tend to use online video and other entertainment methods instead of watching TV or wired devices. These will stimulate the growth of NOR flash memory products.

Spansion will continue to provide customers with a complete flash memory solution, including flash memory products for a specific end market. In addition to its competitive advantage and high-performance flash memory products, Spansion will also provide a series of software solutions. The company's local technical support team will also ensure seamless integration of our flash memory products with our customers' designs. The company’s close cooperation with many major chip vendors has enabled our flash memory products to be pre-certified on the platform to enable easy integration of the product on the client and accelerated time to market. In the future, we will continue to introduce new products with higher performance to help reduce overall system costs and accelerate the wide application of our customers' products.

From the main challenges of 2011, the cost of new products is closely linked with the market adoption rate. Usually when the cost of the product goes down we will see the wide application of this product. In automotive applications, using advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and new automotive digital instruments as examples, designers need to continue to innovate and improve performance while reducing costs while providing more product features in low-end and mid-range cars.