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TI unveils fast new DSPs
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February 22, 2000: 7:15 p.m. ET
Low-power chips aimed at high-speed Web access, wireless products
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Texas Instruments Inc. introduced two new chips Tuesday, designed to enable high-speed Internet access for homes, and also for use in the next generation of Web-based wireless products.
The nation's largest maker of semiconductors for mobile phones said the speedy chips that can be used in a variety of applications from tiny hearing aids to phones that retrieve video from the Internet.
The chips, also known as digital signal processors (DSPs), are the C64x and the C55x, and are part of TI's effort to boost its dominance of the DSP market, one of the fastest-growing segments of the semiconductor industry.
TI currently has a 48 percent share of the programmable DSP market, more than its two nearest competitors, Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU: Research, Estimates) and Motorola Inc. (MOT: Research, Estimates), combined.
DSPs use is projected to grow 30 percent a year, with the market growing from $4 billion in 1999 to $13 billion in 2003, driven by the explosive growth of cell phone use and the Internet.
The C64x, the fastest DSP to date, is designed to enable huge amounts of data, video and voice to be delivered to homes via traditional telephone lines. Wireless base stations also could use it to send multimedia signals to wireless handsets.
"It could take three years for a well-heeled competitor to get to where TI is now," said Will Strauss, an analyst at DSP market research firm Forward Concepts. "However, another well-heeled competitor would probably be Intel (INTC: Research, Estimates), which wants to get into the wireless handset business," said Strauss.
"We're announcing products that put us literally years ahead of our nearest competitors in terms of performance," TI Chairman and CEO Tom Engibous told CNNfn's "Ahead of the Curve." "We have the added advantage that these chips have the same software compatibility as prior generations. So all of our customers can literally use the code they've already written on these new chips."
 Intel Corp. announced a joint venture with No. 4 DSP supplier Analog Devices (ADI: Research, Estimates) Inc. a year ago, and is expected to make its own DSP announcement in the spring.
TI's C55x is a low-power chip designed for use in the next generation of cell phones, digital cameras and digital music players, and even in devices that combine all three into one, with a constant online link to the Internet.
The chip is said to use less power than any other programmable DSP currently on the market, and would allow batteries in Web devices to last weeks instead of days. According to Engibous, this feature will really allow pocket Web devices. (378K WAV or 378K AIFF)
Big cellular telephone makers such as Nokia (NOK: Research, Estimates) and Ericsson (ERICY: Research, Estimates) have chosen the C55x for their third generation handsets, the TI said. The chips are scheduled to ship in the company's second quarter.
"That's when we'd begin seeing revenue, in Q2," TI spokeswoman Gail Chandler said.
Products using these chips could be available to consumers within a year, the company said.
"I think Internet-enabled cell phones, truly third-generation cell phones, will first be enabled next year in Japan, followed very closely by Europe and the U.S.," Engibous said.
Texas Instruments (TXN: Research, Estimates) shares closed Friday down 9 at 134. 
--Reuters contributed to this report
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Texas Instruments
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