The Linley Group Releases Communications Semiconductor Market Share 2011 Report

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - Jun 12, 2012) - Highlighting significant growth in the 10GbE market, but a revenue decline of 3 percent overall, The Linley Group today announced availability of the "Communications Semiconductor Market Share 2011" report which provides data, analysis and supplier rankings for more than 20 product categories. According to the report, the year started off strong with industry revenue growing in the first half of 2011, but declined in the second half because of OEMs paring inventory and wireless operators completing projects and deferring further investment. The 10GbE market continued its upward swing with growth in categories such as 10GbE switch chips, which grew 86.5 percent (exceeding $200 million) and 10GbE NIC ports which shipped 111 percent more than 2010.

"While last year had a disappointing finish, there was significant growth by vendors in several categories and we predict increased revenues for 2012," said Joseph Byrne, senior analyst of The Linley Group. "This report includes the detailed analysis and company rankings vital to helping chip vendors, investors and OEMs quickly and thoroughly understand this dynamic market."

Among the top 20 suppliers included in the report, MediaTek, Entropic and Semtech showed the fastest growth. Broadcom maintained its strong lead in the communications ASSPs market with a 33 percent share and, following its acquisition of Broadlight, should overtake PMC-Sierra as the leader in the PON market. Marvell narrowly overtook Intel to become the second-largest communications ASSP supplier, but Intel fared well in Ethernet, gaining in 10GbE and GbE controllers and entering the 10GbE switch market by acquiring Fulcrum. Intel is also the top-ranked embedded processor supplier with 40 percent of the market, while Freescale is second. However, Freescale is the largest supplier of processors to the communications market and Intel plays second in this area, with Cavium in third place, but showing the fastest growth. In FPGAs, second place Altera's superior execution in the 40nm generation helped it narrow the gap with the current leader, Xilinx.

About the Communications Semiconductor Market Share Report
The Communications Semiconductor Market Share report is published annually and includes share reports and analysis for 20 categories of communications semiconductor products. Semiconductor products covered include network processors, 10 Gigabit Ethernet components, DSL and PON transceivers and transport ICs, including OTN. The report also includes market share for PCI interconnect chips and high-end embedded microprocessors. Among the suppliers covered are established players -- Broadcom, Freescale, Lantiq, LSI, PMC-Sierra and Realtek -- and young companies such as EZchip and Entropic.

Availability
"Communications Semiconductor Market Share 2011" is currently available directly from The Linley Group. For further details, including pricing and a list of included tables, visit the web site at http://www.linleygroup.com/comms-share.

About The Linley Group
The Linley Group is the industry's leading source for independent technology analysis of semiconductors for networking, communications, mobile, and wireless applications. The company provides strategic consulting services, in-depth analytical reports, and Linley Tech events focused on advanced technology topics. The Linley Group is also the publisher of Microprocessor Report, the leading technical publication for unbiased analysis of high-performance processor technology. For insights on recent industry news, subscribe to the company's free email newsletters: "Linley Wire," "Linley on Mobile," and "Processor Watch" and follow us on Twitter @linleygroup.

Note to editors: To speak to an analyst from The Linley Group about this report, please contact: Erika Powelson, Powelson Communications, 831-424-1811 or email erika@powelsoninc.com.