Position Paper on

Value of Technical Publication in the

Semiconductor and SoC Industry

Introduction
In this paper we will discuss the importance of technical publications for the Semiconductor and System-on-Chip (SoC) products, to facilitate the growth, implementation and evolution of Semiconductor and SoC. Technical publications in the SoC industry include a wide variety of materials such as user guides, solution guides, data sheets, online Help, white papers, reference guides, installation manuals, application notes, information document, assembler guide, conference papers (symposium, workshop and conference articles), contributed and published articles, process documents, multimedia library, technical reference manuals and brochures. The semiconductor industry is growing exponentially with strong demands for a variety of chips catering the electronic and computer industry. The need for sleek, light, and portable products that are costeffective has led to the development of SoC devices. Chip manufacturers are designing complex SoC devices to meet the global demand.
Despite the rapidly increasing popularity of SoC, the complexity of having tens of a million gates, multiple

TWB Leading Technical Documentation Outsourcing Company

TWB is a leading technical communication outsourcing company that provides services in technical documentation. TWB is the ideal choice for leading vendors of Semiconductor and SoC systems. TWB helps customers with all their technical documentation needs TWBs experience in outsourcing to major companies drove its position to be a leader in Technical Documentation. Well trained and experienced employees are the main asset of TWB. TWB works closely with client teams located globally, and assists them in meeting their worldwide product announcements and launch deadlines. TWBs documentation services enable customers launch their products with world-class documentation. Knowledge is people, money, learning, flexibility and competitive advantage. Knowledge is more relevant to sustained business than capital or labor. And yet knowledge remains the most neglected asset of a business. TWB helps you unlock and share your technical knowledge with the world.

IP cores, and complex on-chip buses and protocols makes quality documentation important to both the vendors of SoC and the organizations that purchases them. The complex information must be documented in a simple and comprehensive manner for the end users, which necessitates the assistance of technical documentation specialists in the development of these documents. TWB believes that technology cannot exist without being communicated effectively.

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Semiconductor and SoC Technical Publication

Growth and Penetration of Semiconductor Industry
The SoCs average growth volume is 31% a year. In 1999, SoC shipments leaped whopping 116 percent i.e. 345 million units from 160 million units (1998). Later, in 2004 it touched 1.3 billion units.

Challenges and solutions

Some of the greatest documentation challenges that most companies face today include:

Timely availability of quality documents during product release Frequently updating the documents for changes in integrated designs Difficulty in acquiring robust domain knowledge for documenting complex designs To capture the market, companies require system development teams to design better products. At the same time, functionality integration, saving cost and product documentation are very important to improve the market performance. In most cases the integration function of SoC is transferred only through quality documents. Documentation for a new product requires working closer with the relevant development teams. Later, this knowledge is used to provide documentation about functionality, behavior, implementation, and integration into a SoC. TWB provides structured documentation solutions that maximize comprehension and ease-of-use. TWB has expertise in working on complex domains and delivering quality documents. TWB provides continuous documentation support to update the changes in products.

The global and regional markets are expected to grow at Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) ranging between 20% and 35% through 2010. Market for SoCs based on Embedded IP is growing at a CAGR of 29% from 2006 to 2010, while standard cell-based SoCs market is projected to expand at 21%. United States represents the world's largest SoC market, worth an estimated US$10.4 billion in 2007, as stated in a recent report published by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. Asia (excluding Japan) and Europe are the second and third largest markets respectively. The three regions collectively account for about 80% of the global SoC market. The market for SoC is set to experience robust growth with increase in demand for high-speed, low power consuming chips.

Benefits
Partnering with TWB has extremely benefited many companies in saving costs and producing professional documentation along with:

Representing complex chip designs in simple documents Protecting technical and commercial data of newly developed products Updating and managing documents easily

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Value of Technical Publications

Technical Communication for Transferring Product Knowledge
The purpose of technical communication is to transfer product knowledge to end users in a comprehensible manner. The strategies of communication and levels of information vary depending on the type of product and audience. Providing end users with information about a products operation and maintenance is critical to the market performance of the product. Hence, the need for quality documentation is imperative. In todays business scenario, technical publications are often developed as an afterthought. This usually results in inaccurate and incomprehensible documentation, which, in turn, renders the users incapable of using the products. Accurate, readily understandable, and quality documents determine how a product sells in the market and result in increased customer satisfaction.

Communication for Different Levels of Technical and Product Knowledge

In technical publications, audience is the focal point. Hence, the style, language, and content must vary depending on the type of audience being addressed. It is because every user has a specific role in the implementation and usage of the technology. Therefore, it is important that documents be created keeping in mind the role of the person who will use the document. For example, when you document a software application designed for highly technical users, it is sufficient to provide the users with quick reference information to use the application. For users who start without technical or product knowledge, it is important to provide detailed product information along with instructions on how to use the product.

Attractive Publications as Useful Marketing Tools

Besides transferring knowledge, technical publications are also used for marketing a product. Before a product is released in the market, information about the product needs to be effectively communicated to the customers. Well-designed, accurately presented, and attractive marketing collaterals increase the market prospects of a product and reduce support costs.

Faulty Assumptions that Result in Problems in Documentation

The faulty assumptions listed below result in incomprehensible document:

Developers know their products better than anyone else due to time constraints and limited resources, many companies assign their documentation tasks to the programmers. This more often results in the creation of technologycentered information, while end users require task-oriented information.

Documentation of complex applications requires a longer learning curve for the writer - learning the product will not be a major obstacle for writers with the right technical background.

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Conclusion

Competitive Growth in the Semiconductor Industry: Growth of semiconductor vendors relies heavily on an accurate, timely, and cost-effective documentation process. Semiconductor vendors cater to a global audience and hence need simple-to-read content that will minimize localization expenses, while staying ahead of

competitors. Value of Technical Publications: Technical Publications are very essential for transferring product knowledge to end users. Provisioning of proper material to use the technology and products enables the user to accept and efficiently use the product. Faulty documentation can lead to inaccurate and hard-tounderstand content which will have a negative impact on the products performance in global markets. Role of Documentation Outsourcing: The complexity involved in implementing a SoC device requires that vendors and purchasers consider outsourcing their development needs to well-established technical publications solutions providers. This helps the company cut costs and at the same time deliver their products with quality documents.

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TWB Services
TWB is Indias leader in technical communication outsourcing and education. TWB offers a complete suite of services that allows our customers to effectively publish their technical knowledge with their people and processes. TWBs customers range from Global 500 including Cisco, Accenture, McAfee, LG, Samsung, Citrix, SAP, Siemens, AOL, Intel; Indian technology majors including Infosys, Wipro; Global defense majors - Pratt & Whitney, Honeywell, DRDO, HAL; and exciting technology startups. TWB's expertise in technical communication ranges from IT Products and Outsourcing, ITES, Banking, Financial, Aerospace, Defense, Ship Building to Hi-tech Manufacturing, and Discrete and Process Manufacturing. TWBs services include:

Technical Marketing Solutions

Technical Product Documentation

Datasheets Administrators Guide API Document Configuration Guide Functional Specifications Document Installation Manual Interface Document Interactive Electronic Technical Manual (IETM) Maintenance Manual Online Help Operation Manual Product Demo Product Specifications Document Product Overview Document Quick Reference Guide Release Notes Requirement Analysis Document SDK Document Troubleshooting Manual User Manual Open Source Documentation Programmers Guides Functional Specifications Document Use Cases Online Help /Context Sensitive Help Troubleshooting Guides

Documentation Quality Management

Copy Editing and Proof Reading Managing Writing Editing Services Layout and Design Creating SLAs

Datasheets Cheat sheets Solution Briefs/Solution Brochures Presentations Products/Corporate Profile Brochures and marketing collateral Web content Audio and video scripts Press releases Direct mail Newsletter design copy Sales catalogues Sales sheets

Business Documentation
Business Proposals Legal Disclaimers Policy Manuals Style Guide Design Template Design

Business Communication
Short Reports Proposals Case Studies Lab Reports Memos Progress/Interim Reports Writing for Electronic Media

Content Management
Single Sourcing File Version Control Document Naming Conventions Consistent Document Formatting Data Transformation

Web site Development

Web 2.0 development Web content Web applications

Illustrations
Graphic Designing Info graphics 2D & 3D animation Line drawings and illustrations

Qualitative Analytics for Decision Support

Economic Business Research Industry Analysis Market Opportunity Analysis Competitive Business Analysis Company & Prospect Profiling Reporting Solutions Assessment of Unmet Market Needs Status and Potential of Technologies Benchmarking of Strategies Vs Competition Forecasting Sales Force Effectiveness Market Assessments Competitive Intelligence Opinion Leadership Emerging Markets - evaluation and research

Translation and Localization Services

Software Translation Services Document Translation Services Localization (L10N) Testing Internationalization (I18N) Testing

Process Documentation
Workflows Standard Operating Procedures ISO Documentation CMM Documentation

Records Management
Document Management Solutions Record Management Storage and Retrieval

Deployment and Support

Installation and Configuration Guides Operations Manual

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TWB Software Tools Expertise

Our technical proficiency software and authoring tools includes: Our technical proficiency inin software and authoring tools includes: XML Structured Editors
Epic FrameMaker+SGML X-Metal

Unstructured Content Development

Microsoft Word Adobe FrameMaker Adobe InDesign QuarkXPress Adobe PageMaker

Multimedia/Authoring
Adobe Flash Adobe Dreamweaver Microsoft FrontPage Adobe Captivate

Macromedia Captivate Graphics/Animations

Adobe Flash Adobe Photoshop Adobe Fireworks

Illustrations
Adobe Flash CS4 Professional Adobe Illustrator CS3 CorelDRAW Microsoft-Expression Graphic Designer Xara Xtreme (Windows & Linux) CuteDraw Publisher3D(for animation) Sketsa SVG Editor (for vector graphics) Techsmith Camtasia Arbortext IsoDraw (technical illustrations for 2D and 3D)

Multimedia/Authoring/ Supporting tools

Adobe Flash Adobe Flex Adobe AIR Adobe Dreamweaver Adobe Acrobat Microsoft Silverlight Adobe Authorware Adobe Director Adobe Captivate Trivantis Lectora ASP.NET JSP JAVA

Online Help
JavaHelp Adobe RoboHelp 7.0 HelpScribble WebWorks Publisher PowerCHM Doc-To-Help WinCHM HelpSmith 2.1.1(Windows) Fast-Help MadCap Flare Help-Server NVU Help

Graphics/Animation
Adobe Flash Adobe Photoshop Adobe Illustrator Adobe Fireworks Microsoft Silverlight

Standards
SCORM 1.2 / 2004 AICC W3C Section 508 QTI XML

XML
XMetal Microsoft Word 2003, Microsoft Word 2007

Databases
Microsoft Access Microsoft SQL Server

CMS/ LMS
Sharepoint Moodle Joomla, WordPress Media Wiki CMS Builder Author-it (formerly AuthorIT) Alfresco

Development and Publishing tools

XSLT/XSL EDD

Flowcharting
Microsoft Visio iGrafx EDraw RFFlow Flowbreeze Smart Draw

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Industries Served
TWB services a wide range of technology and knowledge-driven industries, helping them meet their markets better. These TWB services a wide range of technology and knowledge driven industries, helping them meet their markets better, these include: include:
Banking, Insurance and Financial Services Consulting and Business Services Defense, Aerospace and Hi-Tech Manufacturing Education and Learning IT, ITES ITES/ KPO/ BPO Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Process Manufacturing and Allied Industries Steel, Ship Building, Construction and Aviation Telecom and Digital Communications

TWB has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for: TWB has been the preferred technical documentation outsourcing company for:

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Telephone: +1.512.586.8357

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