Speaking of tactical shifts.....note some comments on industry strength are in the article.....
TI unveils tactical shifts in face of slow handset growth
By Darrell Dunn
EBN
(08/09/02 02:54 p.m. EST)
HOUSTON -- Texas Instruments Inc. used this week's TI Developer Conference here to prepare its customers and others for tactical shifts aimed at helping the company jump into new applications and offset the anemic growth of cellular handset sales.
Speaking to about 600 customers, educators, and members of its vast third-party software development network, TI said it will begin making its Open Multimedia Application Platform (OMAP) -- a proprietary architecture originally designed exclusively for cellular handsets -- available on the open market.
The OMAP5910 design, which incorporates TI's TMS320C55x DSP and an ARM-based processor core, will be pitched at a variety of RISC-based embedded applications primarily in the consumer and industrial sectors, the company said.
Additionally, TI said its high-performance TMS320C64x-based DSP, which up until now has been used mostly in cellular basestations, will be re-purposed in the next two months for use in applications such as digital radio and video.
The moves come at a time when cellular handset shipments are stalled at around 400 million units annually, stifling a rapid ascent that TI had been riding to ever-higher DSP sales.
Will Strauss, an analyst at Forward Concepts Co., Tempe, Ariz., said the general-purpose DSP market will grow only 5% this year and 20% in 2003, “due to the telecommunications nuclear winter -- with no real recovery in sight until the third quarter of 2003.”
Still, Tom Engibous, chairman, president, and chief executive of Texas Instruments, observed last week that things aren't really as bad as they seem. Global cellular subscriber rates, for example, climbed from 750 million in 2000 to 955 million in 2001, and surpassed 1 billion last week, according to Engibous.
“The real state of the industry is somewhere between the irrational exuberance [of 2000] and the pessimism of today,” Engibous said. Despite the setbacks, “we're still in the early stages of growth for the electronics industry. In the first quarter of this century, the market will hit $2 trillion. We're not greedy. TI will be happy with half of that,” he joked.
Signal processors on the rise
The bravado is backed by Engibous' conviction that signal processors -- DSPs or otherwise -- are fast becoming a more pervasive technology than standard microprocessors, which at the same time is bolstering sales within TI's analog business.
“Signal processing is becoming the engine for every phone call, wireless multimedia application, and photo taken, and we should do everything we can to claim the full promise of this opportunity,” he said.
Jeff Bier, an analyst at Berkeley Design Technology Inc., Berkeley, Calif., said that while TI remains a DSP leader, the very growth of signal processing is sprouting competing technologies in the form of general-purpose processors and FPGAs.
An opening?
In fact, Bier said that TI's decision not to license or create an alternate source for the company's DSPs could leave an opening for competition as OEMs opt to steer business toward companies that can provide another supplier as backup.
“TI has done a pretty good job of proliferating [its devices], but not a fantastic job,” he said. “The company does not have a monopoly. They are the strongest player in DSP, but there are alternatives.”
Perhaps the best testament to TI's dominant position in the signal processing market has been the vigorous promotion of third-party software development.
“Their expansion of the development environment despite the downturn is impressive,” Bier said. “Each improvement is a brick in the wall, and the wall is a barrier to entry for competitors. For new competitors, creating this environment will take years and tens of millions of dollars.”
TI's commitment to its base of independent software developers entered something of a new phase at last week's conference. In the past, the company weighted all vendors equally. But TI executives said third-party developers will now be monitored more closely, with those showing the greatest promise winning direct support.
Bier said the decision makes sense and could allow TI to more quickly guide the growth of developing markets, but cautioned that the company also needs to avoid alienating its existing developer base.
“It will be a difficult challenge to balance the two,” he said. “TI wants an extensive and strong third-party network.”
As it looks for new fields to till, TI expects that long-term DSP growth will still be driven by the wireless handset market and the proliferation of 3G cell phones.
At the same time, however, new flavors of signal processing will challenge the company, particularly in emerging applications where its hold is tentative, according to analysts.
“The term DSP has polarized people,” said Forward Concepts' Strauss. “When you say DSP, people think TI, but there are more than 100 DSP-based products by more than 100 chip vendors. They are using names like encoders, MPEG, and JPEG, but it's all digital signal processing.”
Gene Frantz, a TI senior principal fellow, was program lead for the company's first speech processor in 1974, which was used in the Speak & Spell educational toy. Frantz said the DSP market is becoming increasingly difficult to define, even as some observers say it will soon grow obsolete.
“DSP is dead and it's everywhere,” Frantz said. “We have a room full of people here involved in DSP. In reality, DSP has grown to a point where it's no longer just a device but a solution.
“I think a real sign of success for DSP is when the DSP Division at TI goes away,” he said. |
