In the eyes of market research firm IDC, wireless chips are on a roll. And semiconductor companies want to match this zeal with solutions and initiatives.
In its report released last week, which was an optimistic revision of its earlier forecast, IDC said it expects the global semiconductor market to grow 18 percent this year on sales of mobile phones and personal computers. This report contrasts with the company’s projections last April in which it expected a 16-percent jump for 2004. The research house expects a 12.5-percent growth rate during the next four years, amounting to revenues of up to $282 billion in 2008.
“Stronger-than-expected mobile phones and PC shipments have stabilized average selling prices and increased capacity utilization rates among suppliers,” said IDC.
In line with this optimism, Intel Corp. said it will invest $200 million in companies developing technologies to drive the convergence of personal computer and consumer electronics devices on a wireless home network via The Intel Digital Home Fund. The Intel Capital-managed fund will invest in companies developing hardware, software, connectivity and supporting technologies to support a wireless home network.
This initiative builds on the chipmaker’s existing programs to deliver core technologies for new computing devices, networking products and consumer electronics devices.
Indeed, demand for wireless home networks is picking up, according to a new report from BWCS that predicts by 2007, more than 50 million homes in Europe, the United States and Asia will have installed Wi-Fi connections for wireless home networks.
According to the research firm, by the end of 2003, there were more than 100 million broadband connections worldwide, with residential connections making up 80 percent. For the same period, there were 5 million home-based wireless local area networks, mainly in the United States.
BWCS expects the penetration of WLANs in the home to grow globally to 23 percent of broadband homes by 2007. “We are now seeing major players, such as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco and others making concerted efforts to break into the market,” said Ian Cox, author of the report.
“More people want the ability to have their content available anytime, anywhere and on any device,” explained Louis Burns, Intel vice president and general manager of the Desktop Platforms Group. “They want to wirelessly transfer MP3 files from a PC in the den so they can listen to them on their stereo in the family room; they want to view digital photos on their big-screen TV or to watch video content on handheld wireless devices. Intel will continue pursuing its vision of unifying computing and consumer electronics functions for the benefit of consumers.”
In the WLAN space, Texas Instruments Inc. rolled out a universal router software technology that delivers simultaneous 802.11g and a in a single chipset. The router is known as wONE. TI said it will enhance connectivity in the home.
This product breaks new ground by bringing all the parts into one chipset. Most of the parts include central processing unit, baseband, radio frequency and MAC.
“Until now, most dual-band routers and access points were too expensive for mass consumer adoption since they required two chipsets in order to maintain simultaneous operation,” said the company.
The solution allows vendors to deliver the router to multimedia home networks, telecommuters, small business offices and small location hot spots, said TI.
“Two years ago it was b. Now, it’s g. The next step is a/g,” remarked Remi El-Ouazzane, spokesman for TI.
On the processor front, both AMD and NeoMagic unveiled new products. AMD said its Athlon 64 processor for both mobile and desktop notebooks has drawn support from about 60 computer makers.
The company said the mobile processor tackles the issue of “premature obsolescence.”
“AMD’s new mobile 64-bit processors address this concern directly while maintaining a competitive price that is a solid value in any market and almost unheard of in mobile computers,” AMD added.
NeoMagic said it has introduced what it describes as the first on-chip 3D acceleration processor called MiMagic 6 for wireless handsets. The company said its processor not only enhances the gaming experience, but also optimizes “power and performance for a complete range of multimedia applications, including digital audio processing, image processing, MPEG-4 and H.264 video decoding and encoding, and video conferencing.”
