TY - JOUR T1 - Evolution of Wireless Sensor Networks for Industrial Control JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2013 A1 - Arthur Low KW - industrial control KW - ISA100.11a KW - punctuated equilibrium KW - standards KW - technology evolution KW - wireless sensor networks KW - WirelessHART AB - Technologies evolve in a process of gradual scientific change, but the commercial application of technologies is discontinuous. Managers interested in technology evolution can integrate these contrasting ideas using a powerful theoretical framework, based on the concept of punctuated equilibrium from evolutionary biology. The framework, which enables the differentiation of the technical evolution of a technology from its market application, is used in this article to compare the two standards for wireless sensor networks (WSN) for industrial instrumentation and control: WirelessHART and ISA100.11a. The two WSN standards are the product of two different market contexts, which have selected different minimum viable technologies for evolution in their respective niches. Network security issues present some important selection criteria. Both WSN standards implement security countermeasures against localized wireless network attacks based on the application of the AES encryption standard, but some specific security threats – some local, others remotely launched – are only well-defended by the adoption of public-key cryptographic (PKC) protocols, which only ISA100.11a supports. This article concludes that the mainstream market potential of the Internet has influenced the evolution of ISA100.11a and will continue to demand that each WSN standard evolve in ways that are difficult to predict. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 3 UR - http://timreview.ca/article/682 IS - 5 U1 - Crack Semiconductor Arthur Low is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Crack Semiconductor, a supplier of high-performance cryptographic silicon IP used in some of the most demanding security applications. Arthur has a number of patents in the field of hardware cryptography. He has worked for a number of IC startups as a Senior IC designer and Architect and gained much of his fundamental IC design experience with Bell-Northern Research in the early 1990s and with IBM Microelectronics in the late 1990s. Arthur has a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta and is completing his MSc degree in Technology Innovation Management in the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University. ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Keystone Business Models for Network Security Processors JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2013 A1 - Arthur Low A1 - Steven Muegge KW - business ecosystems KW - business model innovation KW - commercialization KW - cybersecurity KW - platforms KW - semiconductors KW - technology entrepreneurship AB - Network security processors are critical components of high-performance systems built for cybersecurity. Development of a network security processor requires multi-domain experience in semiconductors and complex software security applications, and multiple iterations of both software and hardware implementations. Limited by the business models in use today, such an arduous task can be undertaken only by large incumbent companies and government organizations. Neither the “fabless semiconductor” models nor the silicon intellectual-property licensing (“IP-licensing”) models allow small technology companies to successfully compete. This article describes an alternative approach that produces an ongoing stream of novel network security processors for niche markets through continuous innovation by both large and small companies. This approach, referred to here as the "business ecosystem model for network security processors", includes a flexible and reconfigurable technology platform, a “keystone” business model for the company that maintains the platform architecture, and an extended ecosystem of companies that both contribute and share in the value created by innovation. New opportunities for business model innovation by participating companies are made possible by the ecosystem model. This ecosystem model builds on: i) the lessons learned from the experience of the first author as a senior integrated circuit architect for providers of public-key cryptography solutions and as the owner of a semiconductor startup, and ii) the latest scholarly research on technology entrepreneurship, business models, platforms, and business ecosystems. This article will be of interest to all technology entrepreneurs, but it will be of particular interest to owners of small companies that provide security solutions and to specialized security professionals seeking to launch their own companies. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 3 UR - http://timreview.ca/article/703 IS - 7 U1 - Crack Semiconductor Arthur Low is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Crack Semiconductor, a supplier of high-performance cryptographic silicon IP used in some of the most demanding security applications. Arthur has a number of patents in the field of hardware cryptography. He has worked for a number of IC startups as a Senior IC designer and Architect and gained much of his fundamental IC design experience with Bell-Northern Research in the early 1990s and with IBM Microelectronics in the late 1990s. Arthur has a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and is completing his MSc degree in Technology Innovation Management in the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. U2 - Carleton University Steven Muegge is an Assistant Professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, where he teaches within the Technology Innovation Management (TIM) program. His research interests include open and distributed innovation, technology entrepreneurship, product development, and commercialization of technological innovation. ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Making Money from Exploiting Schumpeterian Opportunities: John Sanguinetti and the Electronic Design Automation Industry JF - Technology Innovation Management Review Y1 - 2012 A1 - Arthur Low KW - CynLib KW - EDA industry KW - integrated circuit design KW - John Sanguinetti KW - Schumpter KW - technology entrepreneurship KW - verilog KW - VHDL AB - Accounts of the effect that John Sanguinetti’s two companies had on the market for integrated circuit design languages were used to gain insights on how to profit from the exploitation of Schumpeterian opportunities. This article will be of interest to entrepreneurs who expect to profit from exploiting opportunities that disrupt the status quo. To write this article, the author reviewed the literature on Schumpeterian and Kirznerian opportunities and examined the writings of and about Sanguinetti and his companies, blogs written by industry insiders, and articles in industry trade journals. Sanguinetti’s first company introduced a new technology and his second company introduced a new business strategy and a new technology. Both of Sanguinetti's companies undermined the capital investments of the established incumbents and created new value for customers. The article provides three main insights. First, deep knowledge and experience in the customer domain enable an entrepreneur to recognize and act to profit from a Schumpeterian opportunity. Second, to profit from a Schumpeterian opportunity the entrepreneur needs to combine technology and business model components in a way that adds significant value to customers. Third, large amounts of venture capital may or may not be required to exploit Schumpeterian opportunities. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa VL - 2 UR - http://timreview.ca/article/555 IS - 5 U1 - Crack Semiconductor Arthur Low is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Crack Semiconductor, a supplier of high-performance cryptographic silicon IP used in some of the most demanding security applications. Arthur has a number of patents in the field of hardware cryptography. He has worked for a number of IC startups as a Senior IC designer and Architect and gained much of his fundamental IC design experience with Bell-Northern Research in the early 1990s and with IBM Microelectronics in the late 1990s. Arthur has a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta and is completing his MSc degree in Technology Innovation Management in the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University. ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Developing Silicon IP with Open Source Tools JF - Open Source Business Resource Y1 - 2011 A1 - Arthur Low AB - The electronic design automation (EDA) tool industry is big business, and commercial licenses are extremely expensive. Open standards have driven many proprietary EDA technologies to be publicly released as free/libre open source software (F/LOSS) and some have become IEEE standards. Competition has partly given way to collaboration and has led to these standards. The development path of important EDA tools frequently now employs F/LOSS practices, which have overcome resistance to collaborative innovation between competing businesses. F/LOSS technologies are at the vanguard of leading-edge system-on-chip (SoC) design, not just because they are free, but also because they are valuable. The first commercial integrated circuits (ICs), designed by hand, helped guide manned space flight to the moon on the Apollo missions. In the past decade, silicon IP firms have shown they are limited only by their ideas, not by limited investment opportunities, and SoC firms have shown they can greatly reduce costs while innovating on the development of the largest new IC designs. This high-end technology is made accessible to startups because of open source. It is no longer just for mega-corporations. This article reviews the history of key advances in ICs and EDA tools. The common theme presented in this article for the driver of technology innovation is the requirement to develop the most advanced microprocessor possible. Today, a low-cost, high-value-added business model can efficiently serve the market for IC subsystems licensed as intellectual property (silicon IP) in the form of compilable source code. Alternatively, for larger SoC designs, engineering budgets can be shifted from the purchase of a relatively small number of high-cost EDA tool licenses to open source EDA technologies that can be run on massive compute-server farms. The two business models are not theoretical, but realistic. The author explains how his company (Crack Semiconductor) developed commercially successful cryptographic silicon IP using entirely open source EDA technologies and how another company (SiCortex) pushed the limits of IC design and open source EDA tools by simulating and verifying a massively parallel supercomputer. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa UR - http://timreview.ca/article/442 IS - May 2011 U1 - Crack Semiconductor Arthur Low is the founder and Chief Technology Officer of Crack Semiconductor, a supplier of high-performance cryptographic silicon IP used in some of the most demanding security applications. Arthur has worked for a number of IC startups as a Senior IC designer and Architect, and gained much of his fundamental IC design experience with Bell-Northern Research in the early 1990s and with IBM Microelectronics in the late 1990s. Arthur has a BSc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta and is completing his MSc. degree in Technology Innovation Management in the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University. ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Nokia's Hybrid Business Model for Qt JF - Open Source Business Resource Y1 - 2011 A1 - John Schreuders A1 - Arthur Low A1 - Kenneth Esprit A1 - Nerva Joachim AB - In today's challenging economy, startup companies are finding it more and more difficult to gain a foothold and traction in the market. Free/libre open source software (F/LOSS) allows a company to gain exposure to their products. However, few firms offer F/LOSS solutions alone. The vast majority combine proprietary and open source products while receiving revenues from both traditional license fees and open source offerings (Bonaccorsi and Giannangeli, 2006). This dual practice of offering F/LOSS as well as a commercial license is a hybrid business model. In this article, we focus on the hybrid business model for Nokia's Qt product: how it is implemented, why it was implemented, and the extent to which the model has been effective. The Qt story illustrates how F/LOSS business models were developed during a period when participants were just beginning to understand how to make money with open source. PB - Talent First Network CY - Ottawa UR - http://timreview.ca/article/413 IS - January 2011 U1 - Carleton University John Schreuders is a graduate student in the Technology Innovation Management program at Carleton University in Ottawa. Prior to his work at Carleton, John received his BEng in Computer Engineering at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. John has 15 years of experience in designing real-time software systems in many different fields, including defense, aerospace, finance and telecommunications. U2 - Crack Semiconductor Arthur Low is a graduate student in the Technology Innovation Management program at Carleton University in Ottawa. He has over 18 years of experience in Integrated Circuit design. Art is an Electrical Engineer who uses open source IC design simulators and software development tools for his cryptographic Silicon IP business, Crack Semiconductor. U3 - Carleton University Kenneth Esprit received his BSc degree from the University of Pinar del Rio, Cuba in Telecommunication and Electronics Engineering, in 2004. He is currently a graduate student in the Technology Innovation Management program at Carleton University in Ottawa. He has over the 6 years of experience in mobile communication and has used open source software as an optimization tool for radio frequency planning and BTS maintenance. U4 - Carleton University Nerva Joachim is an Electrical Engineer and has over ten years of experience in electronic control systems design. He has worked in Montreal, Toronto, and the Ottawa capital region. He is currently a graduate student in the Technology Innovation Management program at Carleton University in Ottawa, where he is involved in a collaborative project with Ottawa University, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation (OCRI), and Kylowave Inc., a company that is a member of the Lead to Win ecosystem. ER -