Evaluation Engineering - 6

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A TECHNICAL LOOK AT
THE YEAR THAT WAS

13.7 BILLION
Predicted worldwide
revenue in DAS market
from 2019 to 2025

All observations are transient

This is the time of year pundits, analysts,
editors, and others of a speculative stripe
wax poetic about the past year. We gaze into
our crystal balls, or our navels, and pull out
observations and speculations, hopefully useful and insightful, and maybe even a little
entertaining.

Pervasive computing
Let's just say that this rubric encompasses
pretty much everything that's converging today, and we are migrating to a point where
everything that draws power will one day not
just be connected, but " smart. "
Pervasive computing means far more than
just a computer in every hand and on every
convenient surface. It means the interwoven
interactions between all of these devices in
the Cloud, and the users involved. Our society
is only just now coming to grips with an environment where data and connectivity are as
important as food, clothing, and shelter.

Edge Computing
2020 will be in that narrow band of years
later pundits will say when Edge Computing
arrived. However, the migration toward applying more computing power to the point
of application has been a cyclic evolutionary process using the core technologies at
hand. From telephone switching to thinclient computing, the pressure to move the
power to the edge of the system fabric is why
the industry is again in the process of pointof-focus change.
This ties into the earlier point about ubiquitous computing, as a decentralized nodebased infrastructure is more robust, flexible,
and functional than a centrally-oriented network. In order to have a computer everywhere,
someone needs a reason to put one there, and
Edge Computing is both the reason and the
method. Once every powered device is a little

EVALUATION ENGINEERING NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020

smart, they can leverage efficiencies of operation that could only be dreamt of previously.

270%

Ubiquitous communications (Cloud 2.0)

Revenue increase over 2019

It is one thing to have a lot of intelligent devices
out there in the world communicating with
each other, it is another thing to have them
communicate with one another and us in an
interactive real-time fashion. The ability to
have instantaneous understandable actionable
information about a product in use is actually
a new thing, taking us so far past gauges and
indicators that those once-vital devices are
now used to indicate steampunk contraptions.
Being able to communicate with one another
while using our sophisticated electronic tools
together is a force-multiplier never seen before
in animals more sophisticated than hive minds
like ants and bees. The COVID-19 pandemic is
only bringing to a point the recent convergence
of tools and software for team collaboration that
has been going on for quite some time. 2020 will
be seen as the year it had to be made to work.

Source: ABI Research

256.87 BILLION
Predicted system-onchip market by 2027

9.55%
Predicted growth
rate 2020-2027
Source: Data Bridge Market Research

Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI is where all of this is supposed to become
what science fiction writers have been promising for decades, and we'll have to fight the AI
killer robots as they try to build a time machine
to kill the mother of the guy who's organizing
the human defense. Smart intelligent systems
will surpass humans in the power of thought,
and have decided to destroy their masters, just
as the Simpsons predicted.
In this case, the reality will be a little different. What AI means for the foreseeable future
has more to do with machine learning and selfreinforcing logarithms to optimize and automate complex yet predictable processes. What
will happen is that AI will empower application
spaces like Edge Computing and Industry 4.0
(5.0?)in a significant fashion.
Alix Paultre, Editor

2.75 BILLION
North American
semiconductor equipment
billings in September

40.3%
September revenue
increase over 2019
Source: SEMI

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Evaluation Engineering

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