DSP: The Most Embedded Processor

With the Embedded Systems Conference soon upon us, we must again remind the world that digital signal processors (DSPs) are the most embedded of all processors.

And the largest market for DSP chips is the digital wireless market, with cellular phones as the main driver. We estimate that the cellular terminal or cellphone market reached some 416 million "sell-through" units in 2000. That number doesn't include chip shipments for work in process or for finished goods inventory at the cellphone vendor, so the chip houses can reasonably claim even higher collective shipments. Moreover, some cellphones contain two DSP-based chips: one for the baseband operation and another for the vocoder function, while most employ a single DSP for both functions. So, actual chip unit shipments can well exceed the number of cellphones shipped.

The ASIC DSP Role

The DSPs serving the cellular market come in two varieties: those from traditional DSP chip houses, led by Texas Instruments, and the less obvious ASIC DSPs based on licensed intellectual property (IP) usually in the form of DSP cores.

We have analyzed the market that includes ASIC DSP cores by Qualcomm CDMA Technology or through licensed DSP cores incorporated in baseband chips from merchant market ASIC chip vendors like LSI Logic, Prairiecomm, and Samsung or from significant cellphone vendors themselves, like Siemens and Philips. In addition, we have concluded that cellphones are also the largest market for licensed DSP IP as well.

Our analysis indicates that traditional DSP chips were in 70% of the cellphones shipped in 2000 (292 million units), while licensed DSP cores are in the other 30% (124 million units).

TI clearly leads the traditional DSPs with an estimated 83% of that segment (242 million units), followed by Motorola with about 10% of that segment (28 million units) and the remaining 7% or so mostly from Analog Devices and Agere/Lucent.

If we count the ASIC sockets based on the intellectual property (IP) involved, DSP Group, Inc. is the clear leader, with its Pine, Oak and Teak cores shipping in an estimated 83 million units for 67% of the licensed-core DSP market, followed by Qualcomm with 32% of that segment (an estimated 40 million chipsets, excluding their base station chip shipments). We estimate that another 1 million handsets based on licensed DSP cores (<1%) were shipped by other companies.

The Future

It is in the ASIC DSP space that Intel has its crosshairs on. Intel is working to develop 3G chipsets, perhaps based on the "Frio" DSP engine jointly developed with Analog Devices--coupled with its XScale RISC core of StrongArm heritage. Intel refers to the overall architecture as PCA (Personal Internet Communications Architecture). In this regard, they are challenging TI's already-shipping OMAP platform, which consists of an ARM9 core and TI's C55x DSP core on the same die. Therefore, we have another ASIC DSP vs. traditional DSP battle brewing.

With the very high prices paid for 3G spectrum by the cellular operators, their payback will heavily depend on providing new functionality and new services for which subscribers will pay extra. This could result in future cellphones with a variety of processing engines (both licensed and internally-developed) that are likely to include DSP cores, RISC cores, and a variety of coprocessors and/or accelerators for GPS, Bluetooth connectivity, MP3 playback, etc.

If you have an opinion on ASICs vs. traditional DSPs, or on functions necessary for 3G cellphones to succeed, I'd love to hear from you.

Will Strauss

wis@fwdconcepts.com

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