Manufacturing

Embedded FPGA market to evade effects of current economic downturn

JANUARY 22--While current economic conditions will affect all aspects of the semiconductor industry, the impact on the embedded field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA) market should be minimal, according to In-Stat/MDR (Scottsdale, AZ).
Jan. 22, 2003
2 min read

JANUARY 22--While current economic conditions will affect all aspects of the semiconductor industry, the impact on the embedded field-programmable-gate-array (FPGA) market should be minimal, according to In-Stat/MDR (Scottsdale, AZ). The high-tech market-research firm reports that, because this market is still in its early stages of development, it will not experience the same degree of negativity seen in more mature market segments, such as the dynamic RAM market.

In the case of embedded FPGA technology, several companies have already made substantial investments in its development, which while slowing due to general economic conditions, are unlikely to be aborted. The licensing of Xilinx's SRAM-based FPGA core, by IBM, is an excellent indication of the future importance placed on the technology. The driving force behind growth for this technology will be in meeting multiple system design requirements and/or applications via the use of a single design approach, and secondly, using that design for the evolution of next-generation designs.

Worldwide merchant market dollar shipments of customer-specific, cell-based designs containing block(s) of embedded FPGA are forecast to increase from $2.9 million in 2001 to $603.1 million by 2006. This translates to a forecast compound annual growth rate (CAGR), over the 2001 to 2006 timeframe, of 191.6%.

In the embedded FPGA market, as is the case for most other product markets today, communications will represent its largest consumer, with the vast majority of applications being in the networking and telecom infrastructure. The embedded FPGA communications segment will account for an average of four out of every five product dollars consumed, over the 2001 to 2006 forecast period.

On the geographic side, and in the near term, through next year, it will be the Americas, followed by Europe, that will control product consumption. Beyond 2003, the roles will be reversed, with Europe controlling consumption. The two regions combined will account for more than 90% of all embedded FPGA product consumption throughout the forecast period.

From a programming architecture perspective, due to its smaller footprint, it will be the flash architecture that will dominate embedded-FPGA product consumption, accounting for $2 out of every $3 in product revenues; however, the static RAM approach will be gaining ground.

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