Sehat Sutardja, the CEO of chipmaker Marvell, doesn’t have much respect for digital picture frames. “It comes with a dumb processor – a really, really dumb and stupid processor,” Marvell’s founder said while speaking at the Reuters Summit on Monday.
Sutardja is not dumb. He is an engineer who claims an impressive 154 patents. He is also co-founder of Marvell, which sells computer chips that make devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry “smart”.
He told Reuters that he wants to start selling similar chips to companies that that make digital picture frames. Adding features like video games, Web browsing, e-book readers and scrolling stock prices. “You already pay for the nice screen, the box, shipping, the power supply,” he said. “The difference is just the CPU that you need to put in that box.”
Electronics makers are already sampling Marvell’s “smart” chips now for picture frames and Sutardja says that they could have new products on store shevles within a year.”We don’t know when they will hit — whether it will be Christmas or Mother’s Day.”
(Picture: Reuters)
