Surprising gains in semicon sectors despite downturn

MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA: In spite of the downturn in communications semiconductor sales, some sectors revealed double-digit growth according to the latest market share numbers released by The Linley Group. Among the fastest growing product markets in 2008 were 10-Gigabit Ethernet NICs, switch fabrics, PON, and G.709/OTN.

"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, Broadcom, Intellon, PMC-Sierra, and Texas Instruments, with Broadcom growing across the board, particularly in Gigabit Ethernet and broadband."

Report highlights include:
* 10-Gigabit Ethernet NIC revenue grew 65 percent.
* Switch fabric revenue grew 49 percent.
* PON interface chip revenue grew 46 percent.
* G.709/OTN IC revenue grew 43 percent
* Double-digit growth was also reported in network processors (NPUs), voice-over-packet (VoP) processors, and embedded processors for storage systems.

Complete details are available in "Communications Semiconductor Market Share 2008" the latest report from The Linley Group, providing all new market-share data for more than 20 categories of wired communications semiconductors.

The report includes Ethernet products, broadband interface chips, embedded processors, network processors, interconnect chips, security accelerators, voice-over-packet (VoP) processors, FPGAs, and more. New in this edition are 10GbE controller chips for NIC and LAN on motherboard (LOM) applications, OTN chips, and 32-bit CPU IP.