Frost: FPGA, DSP, ASIC Growth Driven by Demand for Flexibility in Medical Imaging Equipment
February 7, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS
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According to Frost & Sullivan, the increasing requirement of high-end processors and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) in imaging equipment for high performance computing capabilities drives global demand for FPGAs, digital signal processors (DSPs) and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
Recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan of the world markets for FPGA, DSP and ASIC in medical imaging equipment found earned revenues of $602.87 million in 2006, with estimates to reach $917.15 million in 2011.
Medical imaging equipment demands various processing requirements based on the specific data acquisition principles and algorithms used in image processing.
Analysts said most of these applications demand high power computing that involves a combination of mathematical and logical operators, as well as efficient memory access.
"With increasing imaging system processing requirements, DSPs with a fixed number of multipliers will need several such processors to be used, which increase the price point," said Frost & Sullivan research analyst Gowtham Kumar Sampath.
"Hence, the advantages of FPGA in digital signal processing over other processors and custom IC [integrated circuit] make it a viable alternative for most equipment, including current generation PET [positron emission tomography] machines and volume imaging conducted in CT [CAT scan] that requires high performance computing."
Analysts said with changing market demands for standards and algorithmic developments, it has become easier to implement changes on the field. This makes hardware customization possible.
The hardware flexibility of DSP does not allow the implementation of frequent changes. Analysts said the current trend uses a mix of FPGA and DSP for data acquisition and filtering, along with image processing.
The growing demand for high resolutions has led to the fusion of diagnostic modes and algorithm advances. Analysts said portable monitoring devices requiring greater device intelligence and communications than previous equipment increasingly find favor in the market.
Although FPGAs have begun to replace DSP in most applications, analysts said there exists a trend to use them as co-processors. There is still a healthy market for DSPs with a small reduction in the number of units used.
While FPGA does most of the computing, DSP uses its complementing capabilities to offload some of the computations done prior to the image processing. On the other hand, analysts said some medical original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) prefer to use ASIC to implement specific functionalities in their equipment.
"Semiconductor vendors for FPGA, DSP and ASIC must address the growing requirements of the medical imaging industry by integrating multiple channels and increasing the capabilities of programmable logic with a huge number of logic cells and multiple DSP block capabilities," said Sampath. "Companies also need to target their markets specifically with re-configurable solutions that can reduce time to market and decrease complexity in implementation."
Source: Frost & Sullivan.