Apr 12, 2002 San Jose
Looking to alter the landscape in one networking-IC market, Micron Technology Inc. here this week outlined its strategy in the content addressable memory (CAM) arena, disclosing plans to move CAMs from their current niche status to high-volume products for a broader range of applications.
Micron is also aggressively selling and developing three new families of ternary CAMs--called Melody, Harmony, and Chorus. The CAMs were originally developed by Music Semiconductor Inc., the pioneer in the business. In February, the Boise, Idaho-based DRAM giant jumped in the market by acquiring the ternary CAM assets of Mipitas-based Music for $4.5 million (see Feb. 14 story).
Music was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, when Micron emerged as the highest bidder for its ternary CAM assets. Music is apparently still in business and selling its core binary CAM products, according to analysts.
Nonetheless, analysts were surprised when Micron acquired Music's CAM assets. Traditionally, Micron plays in the high-volume DRAM and SRAM markets for PCs, cellular-phone and networking equipment.
But by acquiring Music, the company put itself in a small, niche-oriented business. CAMs, which have been around for years, are fast search-engine devices geared for table-look up and related applications in routers, switches and other products.
The CAM market was roughly a $100 million business in 2001, roughly flat from 2000, according to Micron. But the growth rates in CAMs have been stunted due to cost issues. Look-up tables based on DRAM or SRAM technologies are slower in terms of speeds but are also far less expensive than CAMs, analysts said.
The CAM market has also been dominated by several small- to mid-size players, such as Cypress, Integrated Device Technology, Kawasaki LSI, Mosaid, NetLogic, and SiberCore.
Now, with its sheer size, coupled with its vast connections in the memory market, Micron hopes to alter the landscape in CAMs. In fact, the CAM market is already ripe for a shakeout, as too many suppliers are chasing after too few sockets right now, said Jerry Johnson, director of strategic marketing for networking products for Micron's Networking and Communications Group.
Meanwhile, Micron itself plans to make CAMs more attractive for systems manufacturers in terms of product prices, Johnson said. "It's our belief that CAMs will become cost-effective with any solution inthe market," he said. "We think [CAMs] could become a huge volume market," he said in an interview at the company's office in San Jose.
Given a new class of bandwidth applications in the wireline and other markets, Johnson believes that the CAM market could reach as high as $1 billion in terms of sales by "2005, maybe 2006 or 2007."
What will drive the CAM market? The shift towards 10-gigabit-per-second and faster speeds in the network will require faster routers, thereby propelling the need for higher-speed chips, especially ternary CAMs, he said.
"We can easily support Gigabit Ethernet and OC-48 with 10-nanosecond SRAMs [in a system]," he said. "But fast SRAMs are not getting the job done in OC-192. And there is no SRAM technology out there once you get to OC-768."
CAM makers still face an ongoing problem: high product prices. Micron does not plan to bomb the prices of CAMs, but rather it will utilize its own fabs and silicon foundries to help drive product costs down.
Prior to the acquisition, Music used two foundries to make its CAMs-Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Pte. Ltd. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Micron will continue to use those foundries.
At present, Micron is currently selling one basic family of ternary CAMs. Dubbed Melody, the CAMs are one-eighth-megabit and one-quarter-megabit density products for Layer 2 switches.
The company is readying its new CAM line, dubbed Harmony, which is a 2-Mbit part for Layer 2/3 switches and routers. The chips are 136-bit wide parts, it was noted.
By year's end, it will begin sampling Chorus, a 9-Mbit part for similar high-end equipment. This CAM is a 144-bit wide part that runs at 100-MHz. And in 2003, it will roll out an 18-Mbit version geared for high-end equipment that supports Quality of Service(QoS) and other features.
