IoT to revolutionize the future of technology – NXP Semiconductors

NXP Semiconductors enables secure connections and infrastructure for a smarter world, advancing solutions that make lives easier, better and safer. As the world leader in secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications, NXP is driving innovation in the secure connected vehicle, end-to-end security & privacy and smart connected solutions markets. Built on more than 60 years of combined experience and expertise, the company has 31,000 employees in more than 33 countries and posted a revenue of $9.5 billion in 2016. With roughly 2,000 engineers in India across Noida, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, Noida is contributing majorly into automotive, networking application and the teams are looking to network applications for infrastructure, printers and routers. The Bengaluru and Hyderabad teams are focussing on software like security software and digital networking software and there are dedicated150 engineers in Bengaluru working for security and connectivity. 

Can you brief us about NXP and its product portfolio?
NXP is recognized for the secure connection to the smarter world. Our product portfolio is broadly focussed into the automotive segments which are fast growing and the second one is into IoT devices for securing connections with the smart cards, credit cards, security terminals, which have to do with the security and connectivity on consumer devices. The third biggest unit is digital networking. It deals with wireless network or wired infrastructure, with our huge portfolio of microcontrollers and processors, one that we have obtained from the Motorola heritage on having acquired Freescale. The last portfolio of product is the RF group, where we have huge demand of RF products. 

“Automotive microcontrollers are talking about driverless cars. This is one area with the strongest portfolio going for us. And the latest chips that we are delivering in this area are radar and vision for enabling this autonomous driving.”

How has the technology ecosystem developed? 
We have a diverse portfolio of customers in the automotive segment and our clients include Mercedes, BMW and other car makers. Our chips go into corporates like Continental, Dell, Bosch, Hitachi and they are our first-line customers. 

We also secure credit card swap machines, since all these machines are supposed to be secured because you don’t know once you give your credit card where these data are going. So if this wireless interface is not secure, then there is the possibility that somebody can hack it. And, because of its robust security, most of the credit cards today have a chip. The recent innovation of 4+1 model has the interface security.

How do you see the future of IoT?
5-10 years down the line, IoT will be an integral part of our life. Now, we are getting so much dependent on Uber and Ola, which are probably at a very early stage of IoT adoption because with the click of a button the car comes to you within 5-10 minutes with the help of GPS. Also, I don’t need to make any transaction because the payment is made automatically from my Paytm card.

What is the acceptability of the IoT company in the country?
With the limited infrastructure, we are getting very strong and fast into IoT. In my view, there is going to be no stopping and I am very much convinced about it because when a revolution comes to help the real issues and easing problems from human lives, nobody can stop it. We have also micro medical devices where some of them are for future innovation. The devices can be implanted in your body, like you already have the pace-maker, which is an electronic device but we are waiting for the device through which we will be able to gather the key parameters of your body. 

Secondly, for smart cities solutions we have applications including the metering things. SNC group has product lines which are dedicated to metering applications; we design those chips that have security inbuilt into them right at the centre. We have secured interfaces with the hardware security module and also have a software security which we call as embedded security /boot security. 

What is the market share of NXP in India?
All our customers are global and by default they are our local customers also, since the global customers are present in India also. That is one way of engagement where we are dealing directly and supplying at the local level. In addition, we have also Indian customers and, to name a few, they are TATA and Mahindra in the automotive sector where they are our direct customers but they are also global in nature. So we have truly become global from both the aspects.
Secondly, in the medical sector we have Blood Pressure (BP) machines and sugar measuring portable machines. We are also in the networking space which is a big area where the application goes into high-speed network infrastructure. So all the cell phone towers, which are installed by Motorola or Ericsson have base stations which have high-speed networking DSL routers in house. These towers have our chips for DSL connectivity between the base station to house. 

Next are the printers from brands like HP. They have chips from us and these are global ones. Every phone has a sensor and most of the IoT devices come with sensors whether it is Fitbit which calculate how many calories you have burnt. So, there are many customers in sports which are tied with us. We have more than 5,000 clients - big and small.