JANUARY 13--The market for general-purpose digital-signal-processor (DSP) chips reached the $6 billion market in 2003, up a healthy 24% over the previous year. According to a new market study from Forward Concepts (Tempe, AZ), that market will grow an even healthier 25% in 2004. But the study concludes that an even bigger market for the technology is in the $10.4 billion embedded DSP market that will have an equally healthy growth in 2004. The new in-depth, 325-page study, entitled "DSP Strategies: The Embedded Chip Imperative," is believed to be the most comprehensive study available of markets driven by DSP technology. 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.
Says Strauss, "There is a fundamental technological shift taking place in the electronics industry. It is moving from the personal computer era to a new era driven by connectivity and multimedia. And, DSP technology is central to both multimedia implementation and those connections--both wired and wireless. This is an in-depth study of both the dynamics and the metrics of the market for DSP-centric integrated circuits.
"The general-purpose programmable DSP market is the best known and is dominated by four companies: Agere, Analog Devices, Motorola SPS, and Texas Instruments. The embedded DSP market, on the other hand, is served by more than 100 chip vendors providing DSP technology in the form of ASSPs, ASICs, FPGAs, RISC/DSP combos, DSP-enhanced MPUs, DSP-enhanced RISC cores, and even DSP state machines. These embedded DSP markets are dominated by companies such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, Infineon and Conexant, but many less-well-known companies also serve this market segment." The report profiles the DSP market stance of these companies among the 101 chip and IP vendors described in the study.
The study concludes that the general-purpose DSP market is dominated by communications applications, with cellular being the biggest. The embedded DSP market, however, is dominated by consumer applications like DVD players and recorders, set top boxes, A/V receivers, MP3 players and digital still cameras. But, it also includes embedded DSP in communications chips for GbE LAN PHYs, WLAN and Bluetooth basebands as well as DSL and cable modems. New, emerging DSP-centric markets like DAB and HDTV are also included in the report. The forecast horizon for all market segments is from 2002 through 2007.
The hard-copy price for the study in North America is $3895 and is available electronically only on an enterprise license basis (worldwide) for $8000. Details of the study and a complete table of contents can be found at www.fwdconcepts.com/Pages/DSPembed.htm.
