Silicon Image On Track to Sample Latest 60 GHz WirelessHD Chipsets

Silicon Image is on track to sample “multiple key mobile OEMs” next month with its latest 60 GHz WirelessHD chipsets, said Tim Vehling, general manager-wireless business, at the company’s investor day in New York Tuesday. Product demos incorporating the mobile 60 GHz chipsets will follow at CES in January, Vehling said, and more will follow at Barcelona World Congress in February. Assuming Silicon Image can convert some of the key OEMs to “real product designs and multiple models,” the company expects to have “a revenue ramp” for mobile WirelessHD products in second half 2013, he said.

On WirelessHD versus the other 60 GHz camp, WiGig, CEO Camillo Martino avoided a competitive comparison of the two, instead focusing on Wi-Fi as the competition. As a member of the WiGig Alliance, “you can expect us to introduce at some point in time combo products that are both” WiGig and WirelessHD, Martino said, creating a type of win-win scenario for the company. “If we're successful in making the successful argument to all the customers that 60 GHz is a necessary technology for certain applications, then we believe we're going to win,” he said. The biggest challenge for WirelessHD comes from 5 GHz Wi-Fi, he said. WirelessHD’s advantages over Wi-Fi are faster transfer rates -- five minutes to download an HD movie over Wi-Fi versus 10 seconds for 60GHz, he said, smoother video and less interference.

Today, Silicon Image’s 60 GHz mobile solution is a two-chip design combining baseband and radio chips in a module, Martino said. As adoption increases, a “logical step” would be for the company to license its baseband function to mobile phone, TV and SoC vendors. Within five years, the standalone radio chip will be under $2, he said. “We're talking about hundreds of millions of units,” he said. “At sub-$2, we'll take it.”

The company’s current third-generation WirelessHD solution uses 2-2.5 watts, adequate for AV equipment but too high for smartphones, Vehling said. “We will be reducing that power substantially,” he said.

Meanwhile, Silicon Image expects its wired MHL solution (Mobile High-Definition Link) to be embedded in 30 percent of smartphones and TVs in 2013, Vehling said. The company sees both technologies as 2 billion-unit opportunities, but WirelessHD has 5-10 times the revenue potential due to higher average selling prices, he said.

Gaming could be a major contributor to Silicon Image revenue in coming years, Martino said. He cited the 1.5 billion gamers today, half of whom use mobile devices “as their primary platform,” and called into question the future of the videogame console. “Is the tablet or smartphone the new gaming platform of the future?” he asked, saying that scenario would “play into our strengths.”

Meanwhile, MHL is growing, executives said, with 190 million smartphones and tablets forecast to be in the marketplace by year end. Four out of the top five smartphone makers -- Samsung, LG, ZTE and Huawei -- have embraced MHL, Vehling said. MHL began as a means for transferring audio and video but has expanded to applications including PCs, gaming and automotive, he said. As smartphones gain processing power, they can challenge the PC in the office environment, said David Pederson, vice president-strategic and corporate marketing. “With the power of the smartphone, a keyboard and a screen, you can replicate any office,” he said, citing a productivity application for MHL. Noting that Microsoft plans to make Office available on Android phones next year, he said, “Pretty soon you can leave the notebook behind."

In the future of automotive entertainment, Silicon Image envisions the smartphone “as the head unit,” Pederson said. The smartphone already has real-time traffic, weather and GPS, he noted, and with design cycles of 7-10 years or longer, “car companies can’t keep up.” Penetrating the automotive market will “take time,” Pederson said, “and is still waiting to be explored.”

Other categories that employ MHL will continue to evolve, Vehling said. He cited the Asus PadFone 2, -- “two devices in one leveraging MHL” -- where a smartphone “docks into a dumb tablet with a battery and touchscreen.” The Spider laptop from Korea telecom uses a screen, keyboard and battery that run off an MHL-connected smartphone, he said, citing MHL’s ability to power devices in addition to passing data. Thirty million MHL-enabled displays and accessories will be on the market by the end of the year, he said.

To date, Silicon Image has been the sole supplier of MHL chipsets on smartphones but that will change in 2013 as MHL is part of a global standard, Vehling said. The company won’t have 100 percent of the MHL market next year but will retain a “very high percentage.” It plans to remain competitive with its “standards-plus approach,” offering tailored solutions including a USB-MHL switch and an MHL transmitter with a scaler that upgrades standard video to HD. The external components add 25-50 cents “as a value add so you can eliminate one component,” he said.