NESTLED in the foothills of the French Alps, Grenoble feels more like a skiing base camp than the centre of one of Europe’s hottest technology clusters. But the message at Semicon Europa, a recent industry shindig in the city, was clear. Europe may no longer be a force in mass chipmaking but it is poised for a comeback thanks to its strength in technologies well suited to a new world of interconnected objects and ultra-low power consumption. This is more than wishful thinking, though, so far, it is hard to spot in the numbers.