Recovery Slow for Standard Logic Industry, Analyst Says
Online staff -- Electronic News, 1/2/02
The standard logic industry experienced its worst year ever in 2001, with revenues for small devices falling 46 percent to $1.6 billion, reports market research company iSuppli Corp.
Revenues for standard logic devices totaled $3 billion last year, the El Segundo, Calif.-based company said, adding that it is unlikely that the industry will see any significant improvement over the next few years. According to iSuppli, the stand logic market will lag behind the rest of the electronics industry, reaching $2.3 billion by 2005.
"Prices for standard logic are now stabilizing at their lows and are expected to remain static through the end of the year," said Kelli McNatt, supplier development manager at iSuppli and author of the report, "A Future for Standard Logic Components?" McNatt also said that "suppliers have done a good job in cost reduction and are making some money at these current levels. They have also invested in bringing newer devices and packages with higher ASPs to market and that will help them through these tough times. It would be prudent for buyers to negotiate long term pricing agreements during the next few quarters to take advantage of the current situation."
According to McNatt, buyers should be looking out for new designs that include TTL devices because suppliers will be paring their offerings in this area and not pursuing development of new families.
"They should encourage engineering teams to switch to CMOS equivalents to avoid end-of-life problems that might impact continuity of supply," McNatt said.
{Harry: No sure how much of a determinate this is of consumer electronic sales health anymore. Most systems are designed as ASIC's or use user programmable devices now in their designed. Given the release of mixed signal programmable devices, few designer are using discretes except to prototype RF and higher analog designs.] |
