ABI Research IDs Semiconductor Needs for the Next Growth Wave: Portable Entertainment.OYSTER BAY Oyster Bay, uninc. area (1990 pop. 6,687) of the Town of Oyster Bay, Nassau co., SE N.Y., on N Long Island, on Long Island Sound; settled 1653. It is chiefly residential. , N.Y. -- ABI Abi (ā`bī) [short for Abijah], in the Bible, King Hezekiah's mother. (Application Binary Interface) A specification for a specific hardware platform combined with the operating system. Research forecasts that sales of portable video players will grow at an 84% CAGR CAGR See: Compound Annual Growth Rate from 2003 to 2009. In a time of maturing markets and single-digit growth in many areas of electronics, this kind of trajectory brings a gleam to many a semiconductor vendor's eyes. Following computing in the 1970s and communications in the '80s and '90s, the latest wave of electronic portability is dedicated to entertainment, currently in the form of portable digital audio and video players. "What processor ICs will enable portable entertainment devices?" asks Alan Varghese ABI Research's director of semiconductor research. "Video processing Video processing techniques are used in video codecs, video players and other devices. For example—commonly only design and video processing is different in TV sets of different manufactures. consumes heavy MIPs in order to decode the latest standards such as WM9 and H.264. It also requires flexibility to keep pace with constant changes in audio and video standards, and in connectivity technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC NFC abbr. National Football Conference and ultrawideband." So do portable entertainment processors need a DSP (1) (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing applications (see definition #2 below). It provides ultra-fast instruction sequences, such as shift and add, and multiply and add, which are commonly used in math-intensive type of architecture, or an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) Pronounced "a-sick." A chip that is custom designed for a specific application rather than a general-purpose chip such as a microprocessor. type of architecture? The answer, says Varghese, is "yes." DSP architectures are critical to providing upgradeability to state of the art standards, and to minimize time-to-market. But the ASIC type of architecture is critical for the high speed processing at low power that is essential for portable devices. "Vendors such as Philips Semiconductors seem to understand the problem well," observes Varghese. "With their Nexperia PNX010x series architectures, they offer system-on-chip solutions that provide software programmability in conjunction with low power processing. Does this mean that vendors offering only traditional DSP architectures or hard-wired ASIC type designs are bound to fail? This question and many more are answered in ABI Research's study, "Consumer Electronics Digital Signal Processors (DSP)" which outlines trends in CE features and applications, IC integration and cost-reduction roadmaps, competition and market share. It forecasts ASPs and shipments for thirteen CE devices and profiles key players in this space. Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , ABI Research maintains global operations that support annual research programs, quarterly intelligence services and market reports in wireless, automotive, semiconductors, broadband, and energy. Their market research products can be found on the Web at www.abiresearch.com, or by calling 516.624.3113. |
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