Contributors: Bob Wheeler, Jag Bolaria, Joseph Byrne In This Issue
Yesterday, Marvell announced that it will acquire Intel's PXA product line and staff as the centerpiece of its strategy for penetrating the handset market. The PXA products include a family of applications processors, known as Bulverde and Monahans, that are popular in PDAs and smart phones. The acquisition also includes the integrated Hermon processor, which combines a CPU and 3G baseband. All of these products are based on the ARM-compatible XScale CPU, which Marvell also acquires as part of the $600 million deal. Marvell has already developed its own ARM-compatible CPU, called Feroceon. We expect the company to use Feroceon instead of XScale in future handset processors, while using the XScale technology and design team to enhance its Feroceon efforts. Although Intel will continue to produce the current PXA products for up to three years, Marvell will develop next-generation products that will be built at its usual foundries. These new chips will probably target 65nm technology rather than the aging 130nm process that Intel uses. Although Intel had some success with the PXA products, generating about $100 million per quarter in revenue, the business was small by Intel's standards and losing money. We estimate PXA's share of the application-processor market at 27%, second to TI's OMAP processor. Even with this success in PDAs and smartphones, Intel had been wholly unsuccessful in penetrating the much larger market for mainstream cell phones. The only announced customer for Hermon is RIM, which uses the chip in its high-end BlackBerry devices. Marvell currently sells WLAN chips into a few high-end cell phones, and it also acquired cellular technology and engineers from UT Starcom late last year. Marvell ambitiously plans to build upon the PXA technology a complete line of 3G handset processors serving all price points, competing against TI, Qualcomm, and other larger semiconductor vendors. Intel has been banging its head against this wall for four years; now, it is Marvell's turn to give it a try. —Linley Complete coverage of the PXA processors appears in our recent
report A Guide to Wireless Handset Processors. Earlier this month, Raza Microelectronics (RMI) acquired the Alchemy product line from AMD to enhance its portfolio of MIPS processors. RMI also offers the XL family of standalone processors as well as the XLR, a high-end processor that scales to eight multithreaded CPUs. Unlike the XL, the Alchemy processors integrate a full set of system interfaces. With power dissipation of less than 1W, these processors can be used in mobile, consumer, and SMB applications. Alchemy was founded in 1998 by ex-DEC CPU designers Rick Witek, Greg Hoeppner, and others. AMD acquired Alchemy in 2002 with plans to make a big splash in the consumer market, but the revenue from the products grew slowly. AMD later acquired National's x86-based Geode processor and is now focusing on x86 processors. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed; we believe AMD swapped the products for RMI stock instead of cash. RMI plans to hire at least some of the Alchemy engineers but has not disclosed who or how many. Rather than adding peripherals to the XL CPU, RMI decided to jumpstart its consumer efforts by acquiring the existing Alchemy products. The company will continue developing the Alchemy line, initially focusing on improving the security performance and interfaces of the Au1550 chip. RMI will also promote the Au1200, which has an integrated video-decode engine and design wins in mobile media players. Without this level of integration, the XL family has sold mainly into printers. The integrated Alchemy processors allow RMI to pursue a broad range of consumer applications. If the small company can maintain and enhance all of its product lines, it should become a formidable player in the embedded-processor market. —Linley Complete coverage of RMI and Alchemy products appears in our
report A Guide to High-Speed Embedded Processors. Texas
Instruments announced that it is on track to deliver samples
of 45nm handset processors in 2H07, with initial production in
mid-2008. The new 45nm process will use an ultra-low-K dielectric
to reduce power consumption, extending handset battery life. The
process can also be used to increase the level of integration,
thus reducing handset cost. Although TI is likely to be the first
vendor with a 45nm handset processor, the company typically reserves
its leading-edge technology for ASIC customers (i.e., Nokia). Standard
products using the new technology will probably appear about a
year later. —Linley This new report provides an in-depth look at the products and vendors powering the rapidly evolving residential and SOHO gateway market. Market leaders such as Broadcom, Conexant, Texas Instruments, and Atheros have combined their wireless, broadband, or VoIP technologies with basic RISC CPUs. While competitors, such as Ikanos, Infineon, and PMC-Sierra, are challenging the incumbents with new designs featuring integrated voice processing and dedicated packet processing to handle faster networks. The result is an impressive array of options from both new and established vendors. A Guide to SOHO Gateway Processors updates material published in last year's popular release, "A Guide to Communications Processors." The new title covers the convergence of broadband modems, voice-over-IP, and home networking in a single box: the SOHO gateway. With many processor vendors targeting this hot market, we have incorporated much new material. Highlights include:
This report covers all the newest products
in this rapidly moving market. To receive Linley on CE via e-mail, you must register on our web site
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