The market for general-purpose digital signal processor (DSP) chips dipped 2% last year to the $7.6 billion level because of a severe drop in the China cellular market in the first half of 2005. According to a new market study from Forward Concepts (FCS), that market will resume growth to a healthier 15% level in 2006, driven primarily by the 3G and 2.5 cellular markets.
But the new study emphasizes the even bigger market for DSP technology in the embedded DSP market that has grown to $14.3 billion, or nearly twice that of general-purpose DSP chips. The new in-depth, 322-page study, titled "DSP Strategies: Embedded Chip Trend Continues," is believed to be the most comprehensive study available of markets driven by DSP technology, and includes the results of a detailed survey of DSP professionals from more than 30 countries.
Forward Concepts' President and Principal Analyst, Will Strauss, is the author of the study, and he is considered the foremost authority on DSP market trends. According to Strauss, "The general-purpose DSP market was slightly down last year, but market leader Texas Instruments grew another 15%, and gained a full eight percentage points to reach a 58% market share. Freescale Semiconductor was the only other major chip company to gain market share, growing 7.2% to a 14% market share. The other key players, Agere Systems and Analog Devices, saw DSP revenue declines because they were more heavily tied to the Asia Pacific market when it crashed in the first half of last year. If China opens its 3G market this year, they could recover very well."
Strauss went on to say, "The general-purpose DSP market is the best known and is dominated by the four companies mentioned above. The embedded DSP market, on the other hand, is where most new product opportunities will be. That embedded market is served by over 100 chip vendors providing DSP technology in the forms of ASSPs, ASICs, FPGAs, RISC/DSP combos, DSP-enhanced MPUs, DSP-enhanced RISC cores and state machines. The many embedded DSP markets are dominated by companies like Qualcomm, Broadcom, Infineon and Marvell, while the major RISC vendors have all added DSP capability to their IP offerings." The report profiles the DSP market stance of these and more than 100 other chip and core vendors.
The study acknowledges that the general-purpose DSP market is dominated by communications applications, with cellular being the biggest. The embedded DSP market, however, is more closely identified with consumer applications like set top boxes, DVD players, DVD receivers, A/V receivers, MP3 players and digital still cameras. But, that market segment also includes embedded DSP in communications chips for GbE LAN PHYs, WLAN, WiMAX and Bluetooth basebands, as well as DSL and cable modems. All of these, and new DSP-centric markets like DAB and HDTV, are also forecast in the report through 2010.
Uniquely, this is the only study available that provides worldwide equipment production forecasts by major application and geography with IC and DSP penetration for each. This is a valuable resource for business planning by both chip vendors and their OEM/ODM customers.
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