MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—October 1, 2004—After a painfully long incubation period, the voice-over-IP (VoIP) market is finally taking off, according to a new report released by The Linley Group, a technology analysis and strategic consulting firm. "A Guide to Access Processors" reveals the key findings and technology trends shaping this much-anticipated market. The key business driver for access network evolution is the convergence of voice, video, and data delivery across the access network. Triple-play services couple packet-voice deployments with the growth in DSL and cable networks. The transition to 3G cellular wireless networks holds out even greater opportunities for packet-voice processors.

“VoP market leader Texas Instruments faces challenges from Centillium, Freescale, and Mindspeed in high-density applications,” says coauthor and senior analyst Sanjay Iyer. “As VoP vendors shift their focus to 3G wireless applications, the requirement for sophisticated low-bit-rate codecs and protocol interworking will stress conventional multi-DSP architectures. VoP vendors must innovate to meet these requirements or perish.”

The report focuses exclusively on chips for the access infrastructure, which extends from the network edge to customer-premises equipment. "A Guide to Access Processors" is your roadmap to the VoP (voice-over-packet) processors, traffic managers, and network processors designed for these applications, which typically operate at speeds of 1Gbps or less.

"A unique feature of this report is that we offer the first-ever side-by-side analysis of all high-density voice processors, including a comparison of actual channel densities based on a uniform set of assumptions," says Linley Gwennap, president and principal analyst at The Linley Group. "To make intelligent business decisions, one must have meaningful comparisons."

"A Guide to Access Processors" delivers extensive coverage of access network processors from Conexant, Freescale (PowerQuicc 3), and Wintegra. Traffic-manager vendors include Agere, Azanda, Mindspeed, PMC-Sierra, and Vitesse. Also covered are high-density packet-voice processors from Texas Instruments, Centillium, Freescale, and others.

The report provides an in-depth technical look at the standards, technologies, vendors, and products driving this rapidly developing market. The authors pay particular attention to product features, performance, architectural strength and weaknesses, system design, and vendor roadmaps. The Linley Group’s expert analysis helps you identify critical differences in these products as well as conclusions about likely winners.
Which vendors are best positioned for success and which will fail? Only The Linley Group provides the deep technology analysis you need to understand this market. If you want to make informed business decisions in this market, "A Guide to Access Processors" provides the crucial information you need.

Unlike typical market research, this report provides technology analysis rather than quantitative market data. Which solutions will win designs and why? How will these vendors be positioned as the access processor market continues to evolve? The Linley Group provides the technology analysis necessary to give you this forward-looking view.

About The Linley Group

The Linley Group is the leading provider of independent technology analysis for the networking-silicon industry, covering emerging areas such as network processors, communications processors, Gigabit Ethernet, switch fabrics, security processors, control-plane processors, high-speed interconnects, storage networking processors, and much more. The company provides in-depth technology reports and interactive seminars as well as strategic consulting services tailored to the individual client. To get free access to The Linley Group's analysis of recent news and events in this market segment, subscribe to The Linley Wire, our e-mail newsletter.