World Electronics Forum

Xianmin Xi, JEDEC Representative in China

January 10, 2011 Las Vegas, Nevada

JEDEC: Who We Are

JEDEC is the global leader in the development of standards for the microelectronics industry; Over 3,000 volunteers work together in 50 technical committees; Nearly 300 member companies worldwide, representing over 90% of total global semiconductor revenue; Semiconductors provide the enabling technology for thousands of products and services used every day, including PCs, mobile devices, medical devices, appliances and automobiles.

JEDEC: Who We Are

JEDEC standards are widely adopted throughout the world and promote global trade; JEDEC standards are open, voluntary and free for all to download via its website; JEDEC has published and maintains over 1,000 industry standards and publications serving all segments of the microelectronics industry.

JEDEC stands firmly behind the principle that open, global, voluntary standards foster innovation and reduce barriers to free trade.

Open Standards Promote Global Trade

Open standards enable and grow markets, and are the basic building blocks of the digital economy; A single set of standards for the world market, reached through industry consensus, avoids market fragmentation resulting from incompatible or conflicting standards; Participation in standards setting is globalizing; helping to address the issue of restrictive regional or national standards as barriers to trade.

Open Standards Promote Global Trade

Standards play a key role in the global economy; defining product types and establishing quality and reliability expectations. This encourages international business and removes barriers to trade. Buyers are more confident, and sellers have a larger market. Standards enable innovation by lowering component prices while maintaining quality. Competition based on product enhancements and differentiation leads to a much larger market than proprietary products could foster.

From a macroeconomics perspective, it is significant that standards make a greater contribution to economic growth than patents or licenses, that export-oriented sectors of the industry make use of standards as a strategy in opening up new markets, and that standards help technological change.

Economic Benefits of Standardization published by DIN German Institute for Standardization e.v., p. 4.

Standards Enable Markets:

Semiconductor Memory
Semiconductor memory standards from dynamic RAM chips and memory modules to DDR synchronous DRAM and flash components have enabled huge markets in PCs, servers, digital cameras, MP3 players, mobile and smart phones, automotive and HDTV, to name just a few; JEDEC has created most of the key standards for semiconductor memory on the market today, including the JEDEC DDR3 SDRAM standard, which is the latest broadly adopted memory industry standard.

Standards Facilitate Technology Adoption:

Flash Memory
As applications for flash memory have become more diverse, JEDEC has focused on defining standards to foster market growth and facilitate broad adoption, including:
Solid State Drives (SSDs) Universal Flash Storage (UFS) eMMCTM

Standards Ensure Reliability:

Lead-Free Manufacturing
RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances a 2003 directive by the European Union) led to one of the most significant shifts in electronics manufacturing processes to occur in the last 50 years; The transition to the use of lead-free materials redefined reliability concerns for the entire electronics industry; JEDEC and IPC collaborated on key lead-free standards* to address the numerous challenges resulting from the shift standards which have proven essential to the ongoing transition.
*J-STD-020, J-STD-033, J-STD-609, etc.

On the other side of the coin, standards may also impede free trade.

When Standards Act as Barriers to Trade

National and regional standards may adversely impact global trade, technology advancement and industry development by fragmenting the market and increasing costs for suppliers; Such actions impede the ability of foreign companies to access the restricted market, and also limit the ability of companies in the restricted market to serve external markets; Standards as protectionism are short-sighted and self-limiting.

China: An Example of Both Aspects

Principle
With its accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001, China also assumed obligations under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement), which includes rules and procedures related to standards development China set a goal of basing 70% of its national standards on international standards within 5 years of issuing regulations in 20021

Implementation
China has also been actively pursing the development of domestic standards for selfprotection in trade in some sectors2 For example: WAPI vs Wi-Fi case (2006) The Chinese WAPI standard threatens to block all Wi-Fi based IT products outside of the Chinese market
1. 2. GTW Executive Summary 2003 Report to Congress on Chinas WTO Compliance, Dec. 11, 2003 USITO Written Comments to the U.S. Government Interagency Trade Policy Staff Committee, In Response to Federal Register Notice Regarding Chinas Compliance with its Accession Commitments to the World Trade Organization.

China: CMSSC and JEDEC

The Chinese Mobile Storage Standards Committee (CMSSC) was formed to develop mobile storage standards specifically for the Chinese market; Over time, JEDEC has engaged with CMSSC to help convey the benefits of global, open standards; CMSSC is now planning to work with JEDEC on developing SSD standards consistent with the global JEDEC standards for this technology.

How Can You Help?

Support policies that encourage active participation in open, global standardization by market players everywhere, and help reduce non-tariff barriers to global trade.

Questions?

Thank You