Texas Instruments (TI) gave a significant boost to its OMAP applications processor line-up yesterday by announcing the ARM Cortex A-15-based OMAP 5 applications processors, OMAP5430 and OMAP5432. The OMAP5432 is likely to target Microsoft's next generation Windows PC platform-based devices while the OMAP5430 is targeted at smartphones and tablets. The OMAP 5 applications processors, designed in 28 nm,  feature two ARM Cortex-A15 cores (each running at 2GHz) and also integrate Imagination Technologies' PowerVR SGX 544 graphics cores. ARM's Cortex-A15 can support up to eight cores and TI's OMAP 5 has only two cores suggesting that the software ecosystem is not yet ready for that many cores.

Most importantly, the new OMAP 5 applications processors bring two new features including graphics computing and hardware virtualization that are currently not available in the current generation processors. Graphics computing APIs such as OpenCL facilitate GPU computing by enabling GPU access to non-graphics applications. ARM's next generation graphics core Mali T-604 also offers support for graphics computing APIs such as OpenCL.

The mobile industry is in the midst of figuring out killer apps for graphics computing. Apple is a big proponent of OpenCL and is expected to bring it to its future iOS devices which could act as a positive catalyst for OpenCL's  take-off on mobile devices. Features such as hardware virtualization can help enhance security and also preserve the legacy application ecosystem. This could be an important feature for Microsoft as they transition to a new application framework in their next generation Windows platform for SoCs.

As we mentioned on this blog previously, TI is currently facing headwinds in the smartphone market from the baseband-integrated vendors such as Qualcomm. We see the integration trend to continue in smartphones as OEMs demand more and more integration to reduce their BoM costs which could put TI's OMAP processors at a disadvantage, particularly in the low-to-mid range smartphone category. However, Microsoft's upcoming next generation Windows platform for SoCs could create another opportunity for TI to revitalize its OMAP business.

Most recently, TI announced a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet design-win at RIM but hasn't yet announced a smartphone design-win for its OMAP 4 applications processor which is bit of a concern as Qualcomm and ST-Ericsson's baseband-integrated dual-core processors come into the market. Qualcomm's MSM8x60 and ST-Ericsson's U8500 / U5500 products integrate an HSPA+ baseband modem and dual ARM Cortex-A9 cores (or equivalent) which puts them on a par with NVIDIA's Tegra2 and TI's OMAP 4 applications processors. The OMAP 5-based are expected to appear in products in late 2012 but until then TI has to defend itself from the baseband-integrated vendors.

Other publicly announced ARM Cortex-A15 licensees include NVIDIA, Samsung and ST-Ericsson and TI will probably face competing products from these companies in future.   We note that Qualcomm's next generation Snapdragon processors MSM8960 and MSM8270 are also designed in 28 nm and integrate dual Cortex-A15 equivalent processing cores. The MSM8960 also integrates multi-mode LTE baseband modem, Adreno GPU and a variety of connectivity functionality (GPS, WLAN, Bluetooth and FM). TI has to fight highly integrated products like these in future and we are cautiously optimistic about OMAP 5 given the trend towards integration. However, the market is expanding rapidly and an assortment of mobile devices are coming to the market with a variety of operating systems which could be a positive thing for TI.  

Qualcomm announced the acquisition of Atheros Communications today to strengthen its market presence in the non-handset markets and to unlock the value of its connectivity chip business. Atheros currently supplies WLAN, Bluetooth, GPS and other networking products to notebook and netbook markets. Qualcomm is currently the number one player in the cellular baseband market.

Here are our quick comments and impact on the competition,

• This acquisition will allow Qualcomm to enhance the value of its connectivity chip portfolio. Historically, Qualcomm was not a major player in the stand-alone connectivity IC market. Qualcomm successfully integrated GPS functionality into its basebands but couldn't repeat the same for WLAN, Bluetooth and FM.

• Atheros acquisition will allow Qualcomm to apply pressure on Broadcom which appears to have a broader wireless portfolio than Qualcomm including NFC (Near Field Communications). By our estimates, Broadcom ranked number two in the wireless semiconductor market (excluding memory) in Q3 2010 and is growing rapidly. Although Broadcom is a minor player in the cellular baseband market, the company is still ahead of many wireless companies in terms of wireless revenue, thanks to its connectivity business.

• Qualcomm's upcoming product, the MSM8960, integrates multi-mode LTE baseband modem, ARMv7-compliant dual applications processor cores, Adreno GPU and connectivity (WLAN, GPS, Bluetooth and FM). As far we know, this is the first cellular baseband product that integrates a variety of connectivity functions. We believe products like this could apply pressure on Broadcom's stand-alone connectivity chip business in future.

• This acquisition also increases pressure on Texas Instruments (TI). TI currently draws its wireless revenues from OMAP applications processors, connectivity chips and Nokia's custom basebands. TI is expected to complete its exit from the baseband market by 2012. The lack of baseband products could leave TI without any apparent synergies between its applications processors and connectivity chips and may force TI to divest its remaining wireless business.

Overall, we believe that this acquisition will allow Qualcomm to expand into adjacent markets and also apply more pressure on its key competitors. Qualcomm successfully executed integrating applications processors into its basebands and became the number one player and now the company is trying to further the success by integrating connectivity chips.

Sravan Kundojjala

Mobile phone applications processors power today's smartphone apps and increasingly phones are promoted as packing "1GHz processors" or even "dual-cores".

Last week we published our smartphone applications processor market share data and by our estimates global applications processor revenue reached $1.84 billion in 1H 2010, up 60 percent over the same period the prior year, primarily thanks to the growth in smartphones. The increase in the smartphone market is real and it has been reflected in silicon vendors' revenues and shipments as many players are re-positioning themselves to tap into this growth. The battle between the baseband-integrated applications processor vendors and stand-alone applications processor vendors continues to fragment the market.

Here are some top-level insights from our quarterly smartphone applications processor market share tracker for 1H 2010:

• In just three years, the market for stand-alone apps processors has shrunk from around 72 percent of the total apps processor market to just 32 percent in unit terms in 1H 2010.

• Qualcomm led the overall smartphone applications processor market with 35 percent revenue share, thanks to its early-mover advantage in the Android ecosystem. Qualcomm's integrated applications processors, which combine advanced air interface technology and applications processing capability, are increasingly gaining acceptance in the smartphone market. Qualcomm's smartphone applications processor unit shipment share increased from just 3 percent in 2007 to 19 percent in 1H 2010.

• Texas Instruments (TI) led the market in unit terms with the help of its legacy Nokia relationship. TI ranked number two in the stand-alone applications processor category with 24 percent revenue share. We believe much of the TI's future growth depends on the traction for its OMAP4 series applications processors and it may prove difficult for the company if it fails to line up big customers for its OMAP4 series processors in 2011.

• Samsung's relationships with Apple and Samsung helped the company to reach number one in stand-alone category and number three overall in the smartphone apps processor market in revenue terms. Samsung is set to continue its momentum into 2011 with the help of Apple and Samsung.

• Marvell ranked number four in both revenue terms and unit shipment terms on the strength of its relationship with RIM. Marvell's ARMADA 618 / 628 high-performance processors are expected to be adopted by RIM for its smartphone and tablet products in 2011.

• Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Samsung, Marvell, Renesas and ST-Ericsson together accounted for 98 percent of total smartphone applications processor unit shipments in 1H 2010.

Looking forward, we expect new players such as NVIDIA, Intel, Broadcom and MediaTek to attack the high-growth smartphone market with focused efforts in 2011. We also expect the stand-alone applications processor vendors to fight back with high-performance dual-core processors in 2011 which could potentially increase their value share in 2011.

- Sravan Kundojjala

I was asked recently how many phones were HD-capable, and realised that the question is actually quite complex.

I should start with a definition for what I believe constitutes HD, as many handsets already claim some sort of High Defintion credentials, but very few actually deliver it...

- True HD, 1080p, is a 16:9 ratio screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and a frame rate of 60 frames per second (or 24 fps for Blu-ray players);

- 1080i is the same resolution, but the image is interlaced, effectively halving the frame rate;

- 720p is also 16:9, but with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels.

The highest resolution display on a handset at present is WVGA (800x480 pixels) and there are just under 200 handsets with that spec, the biggest being the HTC HD2 which has a very nice 4.3 inch screen, but WVGA is nowhere near big enough to be classed as HD.My take on HD is that we will see it on phones in certain functions: a)       Capture? Yes: The Samsung i8910 HD (also known (incorrectly) as the Omnia HD) was the first phone capable of capturing 720p HD video and the quality is immense. I think we will see many more phones in the near future being capable of capturing 720p or even 1080p HD;

b)      Playback on screen? No: The Samsung i8910 HD has a very impressive 3.7 inch, 640x360 pixel OLED screen which gives a fantastic representation of high quality (if not HD) video, but it’s not true HD playback on the screen. In fact it’s only nHD (ninth full 1080 HD) at 640x360 pixels. Converting the Samsung i8910’s specs into dots per inch gives a figure of 198dpi.  I would argue that the highest definition screen we will ever see on a phone is QHD (960 x 540 pixels) or at a real push 720HD (1280x720 pixels) which, on a 4-inch display, would result in 275dpi or 367dpi respectively. Putting a 1080p screen on a phone is a complete waste of time (and money) because the human eye cannot distinguish anything greater than about 300dpi;

c)       Playback off screen? Yes: We may see more usage of playing content from the phone onto a larger screen using the TV Out or mini HDMI capabilities of the phone, or maybe even using a built-in pico projector. Nokia has been a strong supporter of TV Out and we will certainly see many more phones in future with a mini HDMI port. As for pico projector phones, I’m not sure that they are going to appeal to the network operators because power consumption will be so poor that the phone will be dead after an hour or two, then there’s no revenue stream for the operators;

d)      Storage: This is where I think there is potential for HD. Using Moores Law, I estimate that in 10 years time the average phone will have 50GB internal memory and some high end phones will have around 1TB of NAND Flash memory, and probably for about the same price as about 32GB of NAND Flash today. What we will do with that memory is another matter. With 1TB you could store about 375 hours of full HD (about 180 movies) so perhaps we will all have our collection of HD movies on our phones ready for viewing when we’re on a business trip for example;

Battery life will certainly be affected by HD though, so we will probably see much bigger batteries (maybe 2000mAh) in handsets with HD capture or playback.

Finally, it's worth noting that several chipset companies have chips in, or close to, production capable of supporting HD capture including TI OMAP 3440 (12MP, 720p); NVIDIA Tegra APX (12MP, 720p); Broadcom 2727 (12MP, 720p); Qualcomm MSM8260 (16MP, 1080p); TI OMAP4 (20MP, 1080p), so it looks like HD capture and storage on phones will be a booming segment.

Stuart Robinson