This year spells growth in communications and consumer electronics segments, driven by new technologies and the 3C convergence. As rival wireless communications standards begin to find their place in the enterprise and consumer environments, we can expect an increase in design efforts later this year.

A result of the convergence of technologies is the focus on upgrading existing infrastructure by telecom carriers. To that effect, telecom carriers in China are demanding support for VoIP and signaling system 7 (SS7). The SS7 equipment market primarily consists of services control and applications processor platforms, service switching point software and intelligent peripheral node platforms—all of which bode well for embedded systems developers.

According to the report, Communications Industry Outlook: China, the country manufactured 160 million cellphones in just the first three quarters of 2004, an increase of 37 percent over the same period in 2003. With licenses for the data-centric 3G services likely to be issued sometime this year—the Ministry of Information Industry has not confirmed a schedule as of this writing—China is expected to see growth in domestic demand for new handsets. The report, which will be published mid-February, estimates China's 3G subscribers to reach about 50 million by 2007.

New technologies will continue to challenge manufacturers to develop applications. Demand for data connectivity is expected to drive acceptance of ultrawideband (UWB) and ZigBee technologies. Market research firm Frost & Sullivan estimates revenues in the UWB and ZigBee chipset markets at $18 million and $18.8 million, respectively, in 2004. These are projected to reach $443 million and $700 million in 2008 for the UWB and ZigBee markets, respectively.

Yet, another wireless technology is in the early stages of development. Late last year, Siemens AG announced the development of a wireless system delivering a 1Gbps data transfer rate over the 5GHz band. The system uses OFDM over a 100MHz bandwidth and an array of multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antennas.

The 3C convergence brings with it a revival of the embedded systems design practices to Asia, particularly in China, Singapore, Taiwan and India. In-Stat/MDR reports that WLAN is seeing a fundamental change in its implementation. The 2003 removable Wi-Fi PC card adapters were displaced by embedded Mini PCI card adapters as the most popular Wi-Fi adapter. The Wi-Fi Mini PCI cards represented 49.1 percent of the Wi-Fi adapters shipped. The research firm expects the embedded Mini PCI cards to continue to capture an increasing percentage of the total Wi-Fi adapter market over the next five years.

In an EE Times—Asia/Gartner Group survey of embedded systems designers in China, India, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, close to 52 percent of the respondents said they were engaged in designing products for either the telecom/datacom market or the consumer electronics market. The survey also reveals that core usage continues to be high in the region at over 70 percent of the total responses. Over the next few months, EE Times—Asia editors will discuss the results of the survey in detail, giving you a blow-by-blow response to your needs from silicon and tool vendors.

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