| TXN,XLNX................ Digital signal processors (DSPs) -- high-performance programmable chips that proliferate in such disparate places as cell phones, automobiles, and music players -- comprise a $6.1 billion market led by Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN). Programmable logic chips, which are arrays of memory cells that can be programmed to perform hardware functions using software tools, are more flexible than DSP chips but slower and more expensive. They make up a $7.4 billion market led by Xilinx (Nasdaq: XLNX) and Altera (Nasdaq: ALTR), both of San Jose. Will Strauss, president and founder of Forward Concepts, a market research firm in Tempe, Arizona, thinks reconfigurables will nibble away at each of those markets and grow from $330 million in 2000 to $1.3 billion in 2004. |
