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Product category: Reference Designs
News Release from: Texas Instruments (April 2001-March 2006)
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 31 July 2003

DSP solutions grab lion's share of
camera market

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Texas Instruments reckons it has secured the majority of the industry's top 10 digital consumer point-and-shoot camera manufacturers as customers for its signal processing products.

Texas Instruments reckons it has secured the majority of the industry's top 10 digital consumer point-and-shoot camera manufacturers as customers for its signal processing products Of these OEMs, more than 70% percent use TI analogue products, and 50% have integrated the company's DSP-based digital media platform into their product architecture

Industry analyst firm IDC lists the top OEMs as Canon, Fuji Film, Hewlett-Packard, Kodak, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba.

In addition, TI's first-quarter 2003 market-share numbers indicate that its Digital Camera Solutions group has doubled its market share by penetrating the traditional ASIC market.

Since the announcement of its first-generation DSP-based digital media products in 2000, TI has shipped over 10 million units and projects that this number will increase to more than 20 million by the end of the year.

The company has also secured customer commitments from its existing, as well as new, customer base for its next generation signal processing products to be released in 2004.

"The worldwide digital still camera market grew 65% in 2002, proving it to be one of the strongest categories in the consumer electronics industry", said Chris Chute, Senior Research Analyst, Digital Imaging Solutions and Services, IDC, "IDC expects that digital camera shipments will continue to experience strong growth over the next five years.

TI has positioned itself well to remain an important part of the digital camera value chain".

Traditionally, consumer electronics OEMs - including digital camera manufacturers - have relied on ASIC technology to provide differentiation and benefits to their products.

But now camera OEMs find they can get to market faster, and further differentiate products, by implementing their intellectual property (IP) in software rather than in the traditional ASIC hardware.

"Camera OEMs are under pressure to launch new product lines that satisfy the needs of their multiple target markets, as well as sharpen and increase the image quality and performance of the devices", said Dave Pahl, Business Manager for TI's Digital Camera Solutions group.

"In order to meet such consumer demands, TI's programmable solution provides manufacturers the required reduction in production time and lowers costs needed to develop next generation products that support multiple platforms, thus eliminating the need for hard-wired ASICs".

The programmable DSP platform product family includes the TMS320DM310, TMS320DM270, TMS320DSC25, TMS320DSC24 and TMS320DSC21.

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