Drew’s comments came after an announcement from Freescale Semiconductor Inc., and STMicroelectronics that they had entered a design collaboration on automotive applications, including the creation of a microcontroller design team that would work around the PowerPC architecture.
“Freescale is the dominant player in the powertrain, which is what this agreement is mainly about,†said Drew. “We see ourselves gaining market share in infotainment, and elsewhere,†he continued. Drew added that the Freescale-ST agreement may have been prompted by a customer who required a second source supplier before agreeing to a PowerPC design-in.