Modern Technology: The Tech of Tomorrow by LASA Ezine

Modern Technology THE TECH OF TOMORROW

Fall 2021

“Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity.” -- Jacques Ellul, Chritsin anarchist and French phillosipher

To the Readers of this Magazine, We present to you our magazine, ‘Modern Technology: The Tech of Tomorrow’, featuring the most interesting things to know about, as the title suggests, modern technology. We live in a world whose very blood is technology. Our world is innovating more and more with each passing day, and with a world so engrossed in its wires and screens, it would be beyond fascinating to know the “behind the screens” of this technology. Our magazine is the result of the hardworking and enthusiastic cooperative efforts of our brilliant team members Matthew Espinoza, Amough Gumalla, Carson Gould, and Sahasra Drakshapalli. Our team has a passion for technology, a drive to learn and understand it more, and we put forth our utmost efforts into our work (despite our seemingly uninterested team bios). Our major efforts were put into compiling quality, read-worthy content, and our team is proud of our stylish, futuristic layout of this magazine. The topics that our magazine covers include laptops, chromebooks, microchips, and the tech companies themselves that manufacture these products. We hope you readers find this magazine invigorating and engaging, and just maybe learn a little more about the screens that cover your life. - The Editors

Table of Contents

Page 4 Meet the Editors Page 12 Amoghs Feature Story

Page 6 Matthews Feature Story

Page 18 Carsons Feature story

Page Sahasras feature story Photo by Amogh Gummalla

Meet the Editors

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I wrote the article on Chromebooks. I like turtles and fighter jets and playing video games in class. Video games must be played and I’ve got to go and not focus on my story. - Amogh

I am the writer of the article about technology companies. I enjoy learning Atomic physics and Astrophysics, am a Science and Math nerd, a realism artist, and a literature/video enthusiast. - Sahasra

I wrote the article on Laptops. I like playing video games and playsing soccer. I also spent a large sum of time on writing the feature story about laptops. -Matthew

I’m the writer of the article about microprocessors. I like soccer and video games. I am a good soccer player. I play for the club lonestar. I also like playing other sports with my friends in my free time. - Carson

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Companies and Customers by Matthew Espinoza

This image depicts a person using a laptop for personal activties while drinking a cup of coffee. Image courtesy of Lenovo

Companies Listening to Consumers

aptops play a big role in the world. People are using them in work, school, and in the arts. Laptops can benefit the users from the features that they have. When many companies compete against each other, it sparks innovation which leads to companies listening to their

customers to provide their customers with the best products that would suit them best. Stephen Miller, a technologist at who manages Lenovo brand ambassadors, and works closely with laptops will go on to explain companies adapting to the consumerization of IT. ”For a long time companies

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were just buying PCs, and [it] was kind of like, ‘here’s your new computer, get over it,’” Miller said. “This is your new computer, you don’t have a lot of say, a lot of voice, and probably about 10 years ago, we started with the term the consumerization of IT. So what that meant is people like Lenovo making business class or education class devices, had to start

picking up some consumer attributes to make the endusers happy.” Before companies listened to their consumers, they were relying on the ideas proposed by the engineers to create something new for the community. But now, companies now have started to use opinions from their customers and apply the new features on their devices. Many companies have brand ambassadors that will listen to the customer’s wantings and find a blend between their companies products and their customer’s wantings. “we’re professional speakers, and so our job is to understand Lenovo and its offerings, and understand what customers want from technology, and try to find that natural blend between the two. We’re not in sales, but we’re not in marketing. But we’re really kind of like, we listen as much as we talk and understanding what people want.” Miller said Companies also need to do something different from other companies to stand out and become a different company that users can go to. Mohammad Sharif who works with cell phone processors goes on to say that companies have started to come up with new features to go with the needs of people. “Companies are competing with each other, and coming up with different features with different laptops, and that’s

why you see, so many brands and so many types of laptops because people buy based on their need.” Sharif said the laptops needed for the different grade levels as each grade level increases the usage of laptops. “For the students like middle school students, they are not going to run heavy programs in their laptop, so they can have a very basic laptop, for another tier for like high school students, it could be a mid grade laptop, that okay, and the battery power has to be longer so that it lasts the whole day. And definitely, another group is the professional group.” Companies would have to have different laptops to accommodate the needs of different students. Such as having higher tier laptops for high grade students since they would run heavy programs and use laptops throughout the day. Victoria Cameron, a Brand Ambassador for Lenovo, goes on to talk about the different types of laptops needed for different grade

levels. “There’s going to be a device for all of those different age ranges inside of the education space and I think we definitely did it on purpose because there’ll be different benefits to those different age groups. We’ve seen the benefit of hitting all of them and then for consumers and also for if you were a business purchasing from us, our sellers make sure that they know what it is that they can offer to those different spaces, just so that they can always give that right recommendation. It’s like we don’t want to give high school students the same sort of childish computer, we would give the younger students, but for those younger age groups, it would work perfectly….. But a laptop can be for anyone.” Miller will go on to explain how laptops used for learning can be reliable such as having educational devices be more durable to give students the most out of their laptops. “Well, [laptops] are going to have to be dependable in

“About 10 years ago, we started with the term the consumerization of IT. What that meant is people like Lenovo making business class or education class devices, had to start picking up some consumer attributes to make the end-users happy.” -- Miller, Lenovo Technologist

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nov o Ima ge c our tesy of L e

focus is on what you’re doing educationally, and so one of the things that’s going to matter in an education device is durability, it might need to be slightly heavier than a regular consumer device because it might need to be more durable.” Laptops can be beneficial for students by having features such as longer battery life, being able to connect to the internet to do school related work while not worrying about the durability. Sharif stated “So that gives you all the options of your learning and through the internet, you can watch a lot of learning websites, documentaries, and anything you want to

know you just Google it and then you will know that thing. So in that regard, the laptop really gives you the ability to learn... you can learn as you go.” Laptops can improve student learning as laptops can give students space for independent learning. Cameron explains how laptops can be beneficial in the learning environment,

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“There’s a lot as far as the interactions that you can have on a laptop that make them really great for education and also when students have their own individual devices, they’re able to move at their own pace. Sometimes in the classroom environment, it can feel difficult to keep up. But when we give students the space to do independent learning, and we make sure they have the devices so that they can do independent learning well, it can be a really immersive environment and they can get more done. Versus you know, that traditional classroom, not everyone learns with somebody standing up at a board. So laptops can give some of that interaction, whether it’s the visuals or being able to see the words or interacting with kind of a 3d space. ….It’s great. For that individualization and giving students what they need.” Companies have also specialized laptops for gamers, where the user

-- Miller, Lenovo Technologist

their gaming PCs easy to be opened and modified. Cameron will explain how their gaming PCs make the modifications on the PCs easier for the user making the changes. “And just as a point for a differentiator, even if some of our systems you look at the Legion line, and that’s a line that is built for those changes just because people that are probably buying one of our gaming PCs are going to want to make some change of their own along the way. One of the things Lenovo has been good about is making devices that are pretty easy to service on your own just because we know there are more people that are buying A person uses a laptop, a Macbook Air, at work. Macbooks have been a staple in the into our lines that are going working industry as they have a high computing power for everyday apps and websites. to want to be able to do those of the gaming laptop can other parts, and then you can kinds of things because they have the know how.” modify their gaming laptop add on and make your own Companies will continue to their liking. Sharif explains PC based on what powerful to listen to their customers companies awareness of the processor you want, or how in order to benefit their gaming community. much memory you want, or company and customers. “The companies also keep how much storage you want. Leading to the adaption of in mind the need for the You can change all of that, features to new laptops that gamers. That way the gaming depending on your need. laptops have the add on Usually, nowadays, people do can be used by everyone graphics card, for example, not build desktops just for the to do work, gaming, school related work, and various laptops, you see that you sake of desktops, they build cannot really open it, but gaming PCs. The people who other things. As Cameron puts it, “smarter technology the gaming laptops, you can play games, they customize for all, we mean it.” open it and and and do some it because of them needing modification to the laptops.” some very compute specific PCs are similar to gaming processor and compute laptops, except for the specific graphics card.” difference in portability. PCs Companies can see that can also be modified to a many of the gaming PCs user’s choice. Sharif explains are going to be modified the user modification once off their hands, that goes into mind when causing companies to make modifying a gaming PC. “You can buy the casing Modern Technology: The Tech of Tommorow and motherboard and all the 9

The Electronic Devices We Use in Our Daily Lives Graphics by Matthew Espinoza

The Liberal Arts and Science Academy students in Texas were surveyed on the electronics they use for school, work, and arts.

Devices Used For School Work: Cellular device 3.7%

Tablets 3.4%

Desktops 4%

Desktops 1.3% Tablets 1.2%

Laptops 93.8%

Devices Used For Work: Cellular Device 8.4%

Laptops 82.2%

Devices used for arts: Laptops 48.1%

Cellular device device 29.7%

Around 74% of people in the United States owned a laptop or a desktop. Source: Stastistia

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Tablets 22.2%

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are designed to a specific, reference designs that Google puts out,” Hislop said. “OEM ... is a term we use to talk about a company that will manufacture an electronic device, such as a laptop, desktop, a phone, almost any kind of device. And they’ll put a name on it like Samsung is an OEM, or Acer is an OEM [various hardware manufacturers], they’ll build products, and they put their name on it, and you can contract them out, and they can build a product for you, also, and put your name on it.”

Cromebook intended for students used in the Austin Independent School District. Courtesy of Lenovo

merica is in the digital age. Almost all of the information needed can be found within the click of a button on our phones or computers. In schools, tech is an important tool to help students learn in the modern day. Students in the Austin Independent School District get Chromebooks for free and use them to learn, not all students are techies though and don’t know what makes

their devices special. Cash Conovan, Co-founder of Austin Tech Support, said that computers have five main parts: CPU, Motherboard, RAM, Storage, PSU. The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the brain, the Motherboard can be thought of as the skeleton or nervous system, the RAM (Random Access Memory) is like short term memory, the storage is comparable to long term memory (Referred to either HDD which means hard disk

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drive or SSD which is a solidstate drive. The SSD can be thought of fast storage and the HDD as slow storage.), and the PSU (power supply unit) is like a battery which gives power to the system. The Chromebooks used by students are produced by HP, Lenovo, Dell, or by a different computer brands. These brands are OEMs, contractors who build devices to Google’s specs and put their name on them, said Frank Hislop, system integrator at Google. “The [Chromebooks]

Chromebooks have a few main focuses in their design, security, ease of use, and value. The Chromebooks used at the Liberal Arts and Science Acadamy cost around $200300 which is substantially more affordable compared to Windows laptops and Macbooks of the same specifications. Some design choices are made to keep Chromebooks affordable, explained Venkat Rapaka, a product manager at Google. “Because all of your storage is in the cloud, we realize you don’t need to put a lot of storage on the device itself,” Rapaka said. “Because really, you’re saving a handful of files maybe the user wants when they’re offline. And a little bit of information about the user settings so when the user logs in or opens a Chromebook, they can see

their icon and so on.”

A student at the Liberal Arts and Science Acadamy, Austin, Texas. The student is doing work on his chrombook. By Amogh Gummalla.

Rapaka explained they opted for less storage to save on battery and used less storage which was fast. He also talked about how they decide on the CPU,

“Because you’re not running all of your energy using Google Docs, for example, you can do a lot of very powerful things. But they’re all being done in the cloud, not locally. We could also get away with a smaller, less powerful processor and still deliver as good or better performance. And when you put a smaller processor or

less powerful processor it takes less space, it’s less expensive. the processor consumes less power, which means you need less battery to run as long.” The benefits of using Chromebooks for general work were easy to see early on. Basically the devices could run for a really long time with a small and lightweight battery while still maintaining performance. “Our early Chromebooks, most devices, in those days, other than iPads,

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The Future of Education

Pros and Cons of Chromebooks

Other Devices (2%)

Pros Image of education chromebook couresty of Lenovo

Macbooks (15%)

Windows Laptops Chromebooks (13%) (75%)

Graphics by Amogh Gummalla

Average User Rating (chromebooks):

3.5 Stars

- Easy to Use - Good Security - Light

Cons - Can’t game on them - Can’t use most programs

- Good Battery - Restricted by Chrome OS - Affordable

Austin Independant School District provides free chromebooks to all students to help them do their work. Some students bring other devices including Macbooks and Windows laptops contributing to their population in the school according to a survey of 50 students at the Liberal Arts and Science Acadamy. 14 Modern Technology: The Tech of Tommorow

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maybe would last for maybe four hours of nonstop usage.” Conovan said. “The Chromebook would run for eight hours with less battery than most of the products out there. Again, it’s not our current design compromise as much as design choices and how you think of that eventual product experience. How it translates to the hardware itself makes a big difference” They use less powerful processors and less storage

“As long as you’re not in a program which requires a certain program, the computer science department will require your computer to be able to do certain things, and your engineering department will probably require you to run CAD [Computer aided Design] at some point.” Conovan said. “But outside of those two examples, a Chromebook will get you through the entirety of college. As long as you’re not going to run into a class

account. He also talked about the interchangeability of the devices and how it was good for people who have multiple devices meaning they can access their work from many different locations.

interchangeable meaning every student doesn’t need their own device. “We thought for especially schoolchildren, and for school administrators, we thought that having a fleet of Chromebooks will be a lot easier than having a fleet of any other device. Because Chromebooks are very, very easy to manage... If you use Chromebooks in your school, what you will notice is that you could pick up any Chromebook and

Chromebook commonly used by students. Courtesy of Lenovo

“As long as you’re not in a college that requires a certain program... a Chromebook will get you through the entirety of college.” -Cash Conovan, Co-founder of Austin Tech Support

to get better battery life and be more affordable. Since most of the work is being done on the cloud and not being super heavy on the computer. Chromebooks are very appealing to users who are not tech-savvy, Cash Conovan said because if the user isn’t doing some fancy digital design or gaming, a Chromebook can do 99% of the things they need.

which requires you to run a specific program, [I would recommend] a Chromebook.” Rapaka said the ease of use can help make it a very good choice for students since they can do all of their web browsing and email work with a light, slim, and easy to use device. The device is also really good for schools since they were secure and

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log into it, and it becomes yours instantly because we bring down all your settings, your bookmarks, all your documents are instantly accessible on the device, and when you log out, all the access is immediately removed.” Venkat Rapaka said. The security also means users won’t have to worry about anyone doing anything with your device, he said.

“Some of the best security people I have known worked on the Chrome Chrome OS team back in the day, when you’re building an operating system, that is one of the most important things you need to think about. I think for us when we talk about security, there’s an idea called defense in depth. You have multiple levels of defense. Starting with the hardware, where you have... a trusted

module which provides a lot of security for the code that you need to get the product going.” He also went on to talk about how they divide up the device to mean every user will have their files just for them to access only once they’ve logged into their

“Interchangeability was designed into the how the product was built. But the way it works is, when you log in, we know who you are because you’re using your Gmail account to log in. And we use that to bring down your settings and give you access to your Google Docs, right then. When another person logs in, because all of your google docs are, by default, not locally stored, you know, an hour person logging in, cannot try to access your files from the hard drive.” Chromebooks can help students do their work better with compact, light, secure, and easy to use laptops. “We were building a brand new type of laptop.” Rapaka said. Google employee using a CAD software on a chrombook. Courtesy of Google.

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Process of the Processor

try out before they make a successful one. Designing a microprocessor can take between two to seven years depending on if the company is starting from scratch or if they are modifying an existing microprocessor. A lot of designs are scrapped due to not being energy efficient.

Image courtesy of Centaur Technology.

The Start and End of the Microprocessor

s humans we use microprocessors to accomplish many things in our life. They are in cars, computers, and our cell phones, and play a huge role in our lives since they are

By Carson Gould

literally everywhere. The story of the microprocessor starts with the design. One type of microprocessor is the x86-architecture microprocessor, which is in a

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lot of computers. The second major one is Advanced Reduced Instruction Set Computer Machine (ARM), this type of processor is used primarily in cell phones. When it comes to making a microprocessor there are thousands of prototypes that different companies

how well you do the job of minimizing the amount of logic. Also, if you can make something with the retrograde process, which is an old process using old, cheaper materials, then it’s more effective,” said David Gaskins. Starting a company in the design field is very hard because you might not have access to all the materials that you want. You must find ways around being limited.

Centaur Technology, owned by Via Technologies, was bought by Intel. Intel Bought Centaur Technology because they value the employees to aid in the design of more x86-architecture microprocessors. The purchase price of Centaur Technology was $125 million.

“To be energy efficient The second part of the you have to pay attention microprocessor story is to the clocking of the making the equipment microprocessor, internally that is used to make the the entire design is based microprocessor. The tools on a clock. Every registered are very complex machines “When we were most element, everything that that automate the process of competitive, we were the stores information, normally making computer chips. smallest company,” David has a clock that could be “There’s a few running in different steps all elements, that are done or only “I think my best experience as an multiple times occasionally individual was developing a process to create a in a few semiconductor that we could hand off to a costomer areas. You device,” said that felt like a win.” need to Brian Goolsby, focus on who used to keeping -Brian Goolsby, formerly of LAM be a group most of the Technology leader at LAM toggling technologies. clocks actually The not toggling,” according to semiconductor is made Gaskins said. David Gaskins, co-owner of by putting layers of silicon Centaur Technology. It is difficult to become and other materials on top known in the world of of each other, then cutting To make a microprocessor microprocessors. But being and molding them to your cost effective, a lot of known comes with greater preference. “Imagine you get designs will be scrapped profit because the more a deadline that you need to because they won’t make meet so that your company enough money for how much popular your brand is the starts to make money. they cost to make or because more the name is worth, meaning that the price of Depending on the deadline they don’t meet the design your product can go up. you might have shifts of criteria. people working or you might As of November 8, 2021, “When making something have an all hands-on deck cost efficient, it plays into how small the design is and Modern Technology: The Tech of Tommorow 19

situation where everyone in the group is working. When you see one type of tool come out from one of the big companies like LAM or Applied Materials, they are already working on the next tool and the tool after that one. Each tool that is made costs around $800 million dollars in research and development. Then the manufacturers sell the tools to the companies that need them for approximately $5 million dollars each. The order sizes for different companies may vary depending on how many they need to make all of the microprocessors.

“I really like problem solving. What I tell people all the time is that the science is always the same. The lays of physics always work. So if we don’t understand something, it’s not the physics being wierd. It’s us nott understanding.” -Joel Mitchell, Head of NA/EU External Manufacturing at NXP Semiconductiors The last step that the microprocessor goes through is being made and distributed. In this step companies buy the tools and the designs to be able to make the microprocessor. There are a lot of companies that make the tools but only some of them actually get their tools bought.

also a company called KLA,” said Joel Mitchell from NXP. When asked about what making a microprocessor is like Joel said “It’s kind of like building a sandwich, you start with a slice of bread, which in this case is a piece of silicon, and then you start layering different things on.”

When you start out making a computer chip you need to “One of the big companies is a Dutch make sure that the chip isn’t drawing too much current or company called it won’t work. Then you start ASML, and they to put the different pieces of make lithography the microprocessor together. equipment. It’s One obstacle that might get kind of a reverse camera, these crazy in the way though would be the defects that might lenses and, and happen. One of these defects optics and stuff like is called the intrinsic defect. that. There’s also This defect happens when a company based there is an imperfection in in Austin called the materials, and the other Applied Materials is called the extrinsic defect. that makes a whole bunch of equipment, This happens when there a lot of the chemical is a flaw in the design. The chips are made inside a place and gas processing called the clean room. type equipment When the microprocessors are being made they are come from Applied “The air in the room changes made inside of a place called the FAB. People wear a Materials. There’s every 10 seconds from top to bottom. If you didn’t have your bunny suit on you can 20 Modern Technology: The Tech of Tommorow

Microprocessors have a shine to them because the wafer that they are made on of is made of silicon. Image courtesy of Intel Free Press

actually feel the air moving, like a little light fan.” said Joel. What the clean room does is circulate air constantly throughout the room so that there isn’t any dust or other particles in the air that could damage the chip. When you make the chips most of the companies that buy them will look for companies advertising their products. If they like the quality and price that you are offering they will come to you rather than you having to go search for them. “Our cycle times are typically 60 to 100 days right now in the factory, and that’s the time to finish the wafer. Then there are approximately 30 days after it comes out of the factory to test it, cut it out of the wafer into the

little square chip, place it in its package, and test it again. The whole time from the start to finish is between 90 to 150 days,” said Joel Mitchell.

Without it we might not be where we are today. Our lives have been changed for the better.

Throughout this process there are a lot of chips being made at the same time, but how many are being made depends on the demand for the chip that is being produced. The process in which the microprocessors are made will always stay the same. Going from design to making the tools to making the chip. But what will change is the minds behind the design. This will alter how the chip will perform and how it will affect our daily lives. The microprocessor is the fuel for our everyday life. Modern Technology: The Tech of Tommorow

The Lifetime of the Microprocessor Graphics By: Carson Gould

Image courtest of Alcev

Image courtesy of Appaloosa

Cyrix released their first coprocessor which could run up to 50% faster than Intel’s latest release the 80387.

Cyrix releases their MediaGX processor which combines sound and video and put them both on one chip.

Image courtesy of Unitronic.

John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley invented the first transistor at the Bell Laboratories on December

1823 1947 The person who discovered silicon is named Baron Jons Jackob Berzelius, and he found it in 1823. Silicon is now the base of all microprocessors.

1993

1971 1989 The first microprocessor was developed at Intel with the help of Ted Hoff. It had 2,300 transistors and ran at 60,000 OPS (Operations per second)

Image courtes of Bundesstefan

Intel releases their first processor of the Atom series. These processors are single core.

1999 1996

Intel releases the Pentium Processor. It was a 60 MHz processor and had 3.1 million transistors inside of it.

Image courtest of Locke Cole

Intel releases the first i9 mobile processor.

2017 2008

AMD releases the Athlon series which would continue for the next 6 years.

2018 AMD releases the Ryzen 7 processors which have 8 cores.

Image courtesy of ArtificialOG

Silicon 28.086

Image courtesy of Mizushiba-M Image courtesy of Diego Torres Silvestre Image courtesy of Thomas Nguyen

Source: ComputerHope 22 Modern Technology: The Tech of Tommorow

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Technology is a dominant part of the modern world. Microchips are circuits placed on a flat piece of silicon that process various types of information. Microchips are a vital part of all electronic devices.

Art by Sahasra Drakshapalli.

Bill Schnell works as the corporate communications manager for Cirrus Logic Inc. Cirrus Logic is a sizable company which specializes in developing integrated circuit chips, haptic technology, and low-power usage. Schnell has been working at the company for over 19 years.

WIRINGS INSIDE The Behind the Screens of Tech Companies

By Sahasra Drakshapalli

He believes that Cirrus Logic’s values are to aim for excellence. “What really drives us is engineering excellence,” Schnell said. “We are innovators. Everything that we do -- the company is all about pushing the boundaries or pushing forward innovation in exciting new ways. Sometimes innovation comes in the form of low power. You know, we have mobile devices. And what do you want out of your phone? Well, you wanted to be able to do the things that you wanted to do but you also needed to last throughout the day. We are experts in low power.” Despite all of Cirrus Logic’s success, Schnell said the company ship had not always started off smooth sailing. “We weren’t always -- when I joined -- I would say we weren’t necessarily a great company to work for back in the early 2000s. Working with our team internally, and developing work in the press externally, we’ve really developed our brand. We’ve built a great corporate culture,” Schell said.

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With the great efforts of its workers, a company can evolve to be, and the same can be said for the startup tech company Keyssa, founded by Narasimha Nookala

Person using their smart watch Courtesy of Cirrus Logic Inc. who works in the semiconductor industry. Nookala has been in the Bay Area, San Francisco, for the last 33 years. Nookala has been the creator and employee of many startup companies prior to Keyssa, so he has great experience in starting tech companies. “It takes a lot. First you need to have an idea… If it is a run-in-themill idea anybody can do it. And [when you come up with] that idea, you need to have special skills, you have the drive that will enable you to architect … and implement the idea and make a product out of it. That’s the first thing that is required. And then you need to figure out how to fund this [idea],” Nookala said. The responsibilities and time commitment he gives to his companies are extreme. ““Having a good team, containing the costs. I am sharper [because of it]. I am the one that sets up the lunch tables. I am the one who buys the lunch, buys the dinners. I clean the tables, I set up the network in the company. I set up the tools, the servers I design, and architect the chips. I hire the people, I fire the people. I go and make Modern Technology: The Tech of Tommorow

CELLPHONE MARKESHARE

Each technology company has a different share in the cellphone market for the 2nd Quarter of 2021, in North America. Data Source: Counterpoint Research

sun

Sam Ot

Despite a 25% QoQ decline in its shipments to 57.6 million units in Q2 2021, Samsung maintained the top spot as the world’s biggest OEM.

Apple captured a record second-quarter shipment share driven by persistent demand for the iPhone 12 series, despite the company’s global shipments declining by about 18% QoQ to 48.9 million units in Q2 2021.

ot or ol

Ap ple

Graphics by Sahasra Drakshapalli

ra n

3% 11%

OnePlus

The major portion of the cellphone marketshare in North America is dominated by Apple inc., followed by Samsung and then Motorola.

26% 53%

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Data Source: Counterpoint Research

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Cirrus Logic company building. Courtesy of Cirrus Logic Inc. “Your biggest asset is not the intellectual property. It is the people that make the intellectual property.”

-- Person,Title/Profession

presentations in front of the VCs and go and make presentations in front of potential partners that are going to use our chips. I bring value to it. You clean the platforms, you will do everything and -- that’s life.” Nookala has travelled far and wide for the sake of his companies. He has been exposed to different cultures, meeting different people around every bend. “I started a Design Center in India, and I had to set up the whole group. The whole works from the beginning. I set up a design center in piping, the previous startup, a small company. I set up design centers in Germany, in Shanghai, getting to know all these cultures, working with all these people, cultures, time zones, so there is no end to having a team in the US. I had a team in Austin, I had a team in Germany, I had a team in Shanghai, I had a team in India, so I was pretty much operating 24 hours a day.” Working in foreign and new places would naturally result in meeting different people.

28 Modern Technology: The Tech of Tommorow

where they used to [develop] the operating system Windows, which is their operating system which started with the vision of the legendary Bill Gates. His vision was having a PC on every desk in every home. That’s the vision he had a long while ago, back when he started the company in the 1970s. At that time, it was an impossible vision to have, because in the whole world, there used to be the number of computers we could count on our fingers. From there, Microsoft helped the world in fulfilling the dream of having a computer on each desk, and providing that computing power into the home. It didn’t stop there [Microsoft’s products] diversified. Microsoft created a full suite of Office products... In the last decade or so, Microsoft [divulged] into cloud computing and cloud technologies. And.. it is now one of the leading platforms in the technology area, with multi-billion dollar revenue every year.”

“You get to know a lot of people, you get to meet a lot of intelligent people. Most of the people that I hire -- I’m not an average person. I’m a very capable person … and I’m not modest either … But I hire people that are smarter than myself. … And I keep them motivated, I work harder than they do so that they don’t think that I’m dumb. And I make them do 1.25 times better than what they can do. Give them the credit. I take the blame.” Nookala finds value in the people that make up his companies more so than the company’s products themselves. “Your biggest asset is not the intellectual property. It is the people that make the intellectual property.” With that said, he doesn’t view the people to be the “most important” part of a company. “I did not say people are the most important, I said people are the biggest asset…. No. I’m not in the business [of a humanitarian], that I’m a person that is selfish, that wants to make money, that wants to make good products. But the process is you need good people. And good people don’t work with people that are selfish and unkind. So you have to be a people-person. To attract good people, you need to grow them, you grow [with] them, and the product comes up. Even with all these things, others need pay.”

Microsoft has its own unique niches, something that make it like no other company.

Microsoft work building. Photo by Raimond Spekking, photographer.

It takes raw work and effort, and likely many sleepless nights, to build up greatness from the ground. And it takes good people. The similar can be said for one of the world’s leading tech companies: Microsoft. Harish Reddy Kothapalli is the Principal Program Manager for Microsoft and has been working there for the last 15 years.

“Everyone has their own niche... Microsoft has solutions. They don’t just provide software as a solution example. It can be your mail service, it can be your Microsoft 365, or dynamics 365 can have services where people can subscribe and reap the benefits. It even provides infrastructure service where the whole infrastructure can be handled and managed and hosted by Microsoft. And people can just start getting more of a subscription based model. And Microsoft even provides the platforms as a service.” Microsoft evolved from an only PC based technology to now even cloud based technology, but there’s more to its future. “The future is going to [have more of] the machine understanding what you need, and it tries to operate,” Kothapalli said. “That’s where I think most of the technology companies are investing in going forward.”

Companies change and evolve as time passes. Their goals, products, and objectives may change. “If we go back to [Microsoft’s] history, it started as a PC company

Modern Technology: The Tech of Tommorow

“The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don’t really even notice it, so it’s part of everyday life.” - Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft