For Immediate Release
STRONG WORLDWIDE DEMAND FOR 3G NETWORKS AND NETWORK UPGRADES, FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR EXECUTIVE TELLS
“A CONVERSATION WITH SEMITRENDS”
Growth is Broad-based on the Network Infrastructure Side as Smartphones Stress Wireless Networks in the U.S. & as the Growing Availability of Smart Mobile Devices Require More Data Traffic
Dallas, TX — April 19, 2010 — 2010 is shaping up to be “a very healthy growth year for the networking & multimedia business,” a Freescale Semiconductor executive told members of the financial community recently.
Speaking on “A Conversation With SemiTrends,” Dr. Lisa T. Su, senior vice president and general manager of the Networking and Multimedia business for Freescale Semiconductor, based in Austin, TX, said: “Growth is broad-based. On the network infrastructure side, for example, in wireless networks, we are seeing strong demand for 3G networks and network upgrades around the world. It’s coming quite a bit from things such as smartphones that are stressing some of the networks in the U.S., as well as from the availability of smart mobile devices that require a lot more data traffic. Wireless infrastructure is key both from the base stations and back haul.”
Furthermore, Su noted, “as we move more into the enterprise segment, we are also seeing a return of healthy IT spending, as well.” An overall positive trend for companies operating in the networking business, Su added is “as more devices come on-line, there will be more opportunities to build out the infrastructure.”
Geographically, growth is “quite-balanced,” Su said. While in 2009, there was a little bit more focus in China and Asia, she cited recent reports of China capex spending going down in 2009 and 2010, but added, “that’s being made up for in other geographies.”
“There’s an incredible thirst for technology. We’re seeing not only a return to market demand but we’re also seeing that everyone is accelerating their roadmap. A lot of the infrastructure providers are starting with “Hey I want to be more aggressive. Tell me how I can pull in some of these new deployments.” For us as a silicon provider that means getting product to market fast, cost effectively with more features and functions. That’s the real opportunity for differentiation in the semiconductor business.”
All in the industry were wondering if the improvements in the market are simply inventory re-stocking or is this a more sustained industry trend. “When I look at the infrastructure, in particular, Su said, “it goes a lot to what end-user demand is. The infrastructure inflection points are going to be around to be about things such as: How fast is 3G deployment going to come in?; and, How fast is LTE going to be adopted? We’re talking about doing LTE field trials across a number of different operators in 2010. How fast is that going to go into production?”
“It feels like there’s a lot of activity in the marketplace. So far, so good. It feels likes there’s good industry momentum with the growth of all these mobile devices. We’ll continue to watch that very carefully, because as standards transitions come into play it also has production transition and system transition implications, as well, “ Su added.
Freescale has been the perennial leader in the networking processor business, holding about a 50% market share. “What sets Freescale apart from its competitors, and how it differentiates itself in the market,” Su said, is that “we are the only company that serves end-to-end solutions in the networking space, from the very low end to the very high-end of multi-core devices. It’s providing a very scalable architecture across those platforms. Whereas some competitors have solutions in certain segments of the market, “the breadth of our roadmap is clear,” Su noted.
Dr. Su noted that 2 years ago, Freescale did a very important thing by deciding to accelerate its technology roadmap in multi-core, skipping the 65-nm generation of process technologies and going directly into 45-nm technology. “What that has allowed us to do is to get substantially more performance per unit-dollar and performance per unit- watt, or power consumption. We’re going to continue to do that, pushing technology hard. We also have substantial investments on the core architecture side as well as on the networking-specific IP (intellectual property). Think about it as ‘Networking Are Us’ and this is what we spend our time on.”
Regarding Freescale’s new QorIQ™ line of multi-core processors, Su said: “We began shipping a number of devices last year and it has been going very well. The acceptance across the industry is good. The primary focus at this point is on how we help customers to make the transition, because it is a big transition to go from today’s single- or dual-core processors into quad- or 8-core processors. We’ve been doing a lot of work in helping customers to transition their software and their systems thinking into the multi-core arena. I’m very pleased with the progress, so far.
By the end of the fourth quarter of 2009, Freescale had over 650 QorIQ design engagements and, Dr, Su said, “that’s increasing every month.” The largest, announced design win, she noted, was garnered last year with Alcatel-Lucent in their common platform wireless application. They selected Freescale’s P4080 QorIQ 8-core device, as well as its MSC8156 StarCore DSP for their common platform across wireless standards. “There are a number of other design wins like that and the thing about this generation is the design wins are fairly large dollar amount. Now we’re talking about tens of millions of dollars of opportunities per design win, in some cases. So the stakes are high,” Su stated.
The multi-core approach also is being applied to Freescale’s StarCore DSPs, the current flagship device being a 6-core device designed specifically for LTE. Thus, Freescale has both a core capability as well as acceleration capability for LTE. This device sampled over 6000-7000 parts in 2009 and this year started production in 45-nm, primarily for wireless infrastructure, such as base-station applications where there’s a transition from 3G to LTE, requiring a lot more performance and capability.
As an early adopter of process technology, Freescale designed its line of networking devices in 45-nm SOI. “What that allows us to do is get industry-leading power/performance capabilities in a microprocessor technology.” Freescale has done more than a half-dozen devices and plans to do another half-dozen this year. “The line-up of our product portfolio has been upgraded with the new capabilities,” and. Dr. Su said, “We will continue to push technology and go into the next technology node. 32-nm or below, possibly 28-nm, starting some design this year.
Although Freescale is not traditionally known as a consumer company, Dr. Su noted: “Multimedia is definitely at the center of Freescale’s growth strategy. Our focus in multi-media goes back to our focus on embedded processing. We are really investing in microprocessor architectures and system-on-chip architectures. When you look at the growth in these types of devices that are out there, there’s a lot of need for strong solutions in the multimedia space. So anything with a display is where we’re focused,” strong momentum in automotive infotainment, eReaders and tablets, etc.
In the mobile consumer segment, which Su described as “an evolving market today, our share in eReaders is very high. We have #1 market share today.” Competitors such as Qualcomm, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Nvidia, for example, tend to be focus on smartphones which have smaller displays. By contrast, Freescale is focused on larger screened devices. “There’s a space in between smartphones and laptops of today that is an growing market segment, an emerging market segment with a lot of opportunities.”
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