In a recent survey report by The Linley Group entitled "Communications Semiconductor Market Share 2008” indicated that communications-semiconductor sales saw a surge despite economic slowdown.

 

According to the report, the fastest growing semiconductor product markets in 2008 were 10-Gigabit Ethernet NICs, switch fabrics, PON, and G.709/OTN. The 10-Gigabit Ethernet NIC (News - Alert) revenue saw a growth by 65 percent, while switch fabric revenue saw a growth by 49 percent. The PON interface chip revenue grew by 46 percent, while G.709/OTN IC revenue grew by 43 percent.

 

The report, which provided all new market-share data for over 20 categories of wired communications semiconductors, also indicated that there was a double-digit growth in network processors (NPUs), voice-over-packet (VoP) processors, and embedded processors for storage systems.

 

"These findings support our forecast last year that even in a week economy, a number of growth opportunities still existed," said Joseph Byrne, senior analyst with The Linley Group. "We found that the five fastest growing companies in 2008 were AMCC (News - Alert), Broadcom, Intellon, PMC-Sierra, and Texas Instruments, with Broadcom growing across the board, particularly in Gigabit Ethernet and broadband."

 

Last year, the Linley Group had anticipated that the market will grow at a 5 percent annual rate through 2012, with strong revenue outlook for network processors and Ethernet devices. The network processor specifically is projected to grow at an annual rate of nearly 13 percent through 2012, while the Ethernet semiconductor market is expected to grow at a rate of 10 percent through the same period.

 

With increase in natural migration to faster speeds, and the rising popularity of Fiber-Channel-over-Ethernet, the demand for these wired communications semiconductors will also increase. In turn there will be an increase in the overall sales of the communications-semiconductors, says company.

 

The Linley Group’s report on communications semiconductor market includes key findings, figures, and market status on - Ethernet products, broadband interface chips, embedded processors, network processors, interconnect chips, security accelerators, voice-over-packet (VoP) processors, FPGAs, and more. 10GbE controller chips for NIC and LAN on motherboard (LOM) applications, OTN chips, and 32-bit CPU IP were added in the latest edition, said the firm.

 

The Linley Group is a Mountain View, California-based IT research firm. It provides independent technology analysis of semiconductors for networking, communications, mobile, and wireless.