Happy Monday, and hope those readers in Daylight Savings Time areas aren’t too bleary-eyed (the author of this post sure is…).

A question came to us recently though the “Submit a Question” link (you can find it there —->) that I wanted to answer here on HotSpots.

Reader question: I noticed that the ASSP block was added to the slide about power consumption and appears within the same power range as the AL3S1 (QuickLogic note: the reader is referring to the presentation from the SensorsCon 2014 seminar, located here). Is that a concern now that others can produce such low-power parts (even if their not reprogrammable which is a big advantage IMO)?

QuickLogic answer to the reader: I think if you go back to the presentation we did at the launch of the ArcticLink 3 S1 (located here on our YouTube page), you’ll see that we did have ASSP’s listed (around 23:18).   Certainly since then, there have been additional competitive product releases, which is the reason for the movement of ASSP’s within the slide from then to now.

Is it a concern?  Not really, and (the reader) hit the nail on the head as to why — re-programmability.  ASSPs are completely inflexible — once they are designed and sent to fab, they cannot be changed (without many months and >$1M dollars — and that’s likely a low estimate).  Aside from the fact that ASSP’s mandate specific pinouts, connections, interfaces, etc…, the market is telling us clearly that the ability to adjust algorithms on the fly, and that support for new and developing use cases for sensors is extremely important.  A programmable-based solution is ideal for all of that.  Our belief in our AL3 S1 has not wavered, and as Andy Pease said in the last earnings call, we have a number of active design engagements with leading mobile device manufacturers for ArcticLink 3 S1 that we continue to believe will lead to production revenue during the second half of 2014.