Infineon, Motorola and Agere Systems have announced today that they are to form a company which will work on producing a new generation of DSPs (digital signal processors), which are used in chipsets to handle digital signals like audio and video.
DSPs are used in many digital devices like DVD players and the new group, called StarCore LLC, has formed in light of recent news that the DSP market in 2003 will have a net value of $6.5bn. The company is hoping to produce a chip that will set the standard in DSP, and they hope many companies will use it in their chipsets.
The strength of the group is obvious, as Motorola and Agere are already two of the key players in the market. This is an important time for the future of DSP as more devices from phones to set-top boxes demand advanced digital processing. A DSP works by performing the complex operations involved in the conversion and decoding of digital signals and is vital for the efficient viewing of many modern media formats, especially with the advent of broadband and streaming audio/video. The new company can be expected to start work this summer.
The CEO of StarCore LLC has told ZDNet: "The central goal of the new StarCore is to proliferate world-class DSP core technologies through open licensing". He also spoke to The Inquirer stating the aim of the company is "to fundamentally change the competitive playing field through licensing and wide availability of DSP cores. These cores will help manufacturers of communications systems and semiconductor devices deliver higher levels of performance and miniaturization while accelerating time to market and lowering overall production costs".