Dedicated security chips are becoming more and more abundant

According to market information, the market capacity of security digital compression chips in 2011 was close to 20 million pieces. In 2012, it had exceeded 30 million pieces. According to the current trend, in 2013, this figure is likely to exceed 40 million pieces. .

The security chip market is undergoing tremendous changes. The market demand continues to grow. In 2013, it is expected to exceed 40 million. Hass, led by Hass, has occupied more than 60% of the market. The ASIC promotes security chip technology innovation. The chip's multi-service capabilities and IPC chip's integration with the auxiliary chip will become the future direction.

The huge market capacity has given birth to the breakdown of products. With the growth of the security chip market, the subdivision of security chips is also imperative. Compared with the single DSP chip that security industry just started digitizing a few years ago, the current security chip has been subdivided into different types depending on the application, mainly in the following aspects:

DVR/NVR chips, such as Hi3515 and Hi3520 from HiSilicon, are used in embedded DVR products and embedded NVR products. They mainly focus on the requirements of multi-channel codec, multi-service management, and high bit rate storage. Currently, these chips are the market. The largest type of chip, which occupies about 60% of the number of main compression chips.

IPC chips are used in network camera products. This is the result of the gradual maturation of the IPC market in the past two years. These chips focus on high-definition compression, intelligentization, and ISP processing. Currently, the market capacity of these chips is not as good as DVR/NVR chips, but it is foreseeable. Yes, some time later, such chips will occupy most of the security market share.

The auxiliary chip is mainly used for intelligentization and ISP services, mainly DSP and FPGA. In the analog camera, this type of DSP or FPGA chip for ISP is used in large quantities. Since the current market capacity of intelligent analysis products is still in the initial stage, the amount of DSP used for intelligent analysis products is less. With the increasing integration of IPC chips, the functionality of these companion chips may eventually be incorporated into IPC chips.

The expansion of market capacity has also stimulated technological progress and innovation. The development and innovation of security chip technology are represented by the progress of the main compression chip. The advancement of these technologies has led to the development of security products, which have determined the direction of security products. At the same time, they have also brought restructuring to the security industry. The market competition has also undergone major changes.

The most representative of these technological innovations is the emergence of security-specific ASIC chips. 7-8 years ago, when security digital products just began to be popular, most of the chips used were general-purpose DSPs. They were not specifically designed for the security industry. When used, they had higher technical thresholds and the costs were relatively high. The birth of a video ASIC chip represented by HiSilicon Hi3510 in 2005 gave new vitality to the security industry. Although this chip is not designed specifically for the security industry, it has brought breakthroughs to the security industry. Subsequent security products basically entered the ASIC era, including the Hi3512, Hi3511, Hi3515, and Ti35's DM365, DM368, etc., which were successively released by HiSilicon, and they were all ASIC chips designed for security. The comprehensive popularization of security ASIC chips has two important meanings. First of all, ASIC chips enable the development of digital products for security, reducing the production threshold, enabling a large number of enterprises to enter, and promoting the maturation and development of the industrial chain; secondly, it greatly reduces the security of digital products. Cost, more cost-effective products make the security market scale further.

More powerful codec capability is also an important area of ​​security chip innovation. Security chip from the beginning of the single-chip code 2CIF to the current single-chip codec 32D1, its codec capabilities increased by as much as 64 times, which is a shocking technical progress, but also laid a good foundation for the arrival of security HD era Currently, the compression chip for high-definition cameras can already be used to achieve 1080P@60fps in the H.264 encoding format, paving the way for high-definition applications in security applications.

Another advantage brought by the improvement of the encoding capability is that the number of codec channels supported by a single chip is getting higher and higher. The most direct significance is that the resolution of the DVR has basically entered the D 1/4 CIF era, and the single-chip 32-channel DVR Products have also been interviewed, while the NVR can support access to more IPCs and can display and play back more channels.

The progress of encoding format is also one of the technical innovations of security chips. In the recent years of rapid development of security chips, the encoding method has gone from H.263 to MPEG-4 and then to H.264, although each encoding The format will be twisted in the early stages of its life, especially for the decoding capability of the back end is a huge challenge, but the pace of its innovation has never stopped.

At present, more than 90% of security digital products have adopted H.264 algorithm, and a new generation of H.265 algorithm has entered the scope of research of chip companies, it is expected that 2-3 years, H.265 encoding format will be fully applied Security digital products, higher compression efficiency and lower code stream, no doubt also promote the security industry to enter a new era.

Although the current security chip market is developing rapidly and the outlook is optimistic, it also faces many development challenges.

The first is how the speed of the chip can quickly follow the development of products and industries. Current security product roadmap trends are generally determined by security chips. Chips are not released and corresponding products are basically not released. However, from the perspective of the current security industry, there will be a series of new product demands that will be born in about half a year. At present, the security chip's update cycle is generally a little over a year. This has caused the situation that the demand has been waiting for the chip. How can the development of the chip match the development of the demand and bring a lot of pressure on the chip company, because it means that the labor cost is increased by a multiple, and the market is replaced too soon. Frequently, it also wastes output value. On the other hand, the security industry has become more and more subdivided into requirements. The situation that one chip can be used on most products is now difficult to meet the needs of users. How to subdivide the chip and target it to meet the needs of users is also very difficult. A difficult problem.

The second is how to guide the healthy growth of the industrial chain. Due to the particularity and criticality of the security chip, the market behavior of the security chip manufacturer can easily affect the development of the security industry. How to protect the market while expanding the market is to require a lot of chip companies considerate.

The cost control of the chip is also a challenge. At present, the number of major manufacturers of security chips is small, but there is great pressure to compete with each other. In addition, the pressure from terminal manufacturers due to the decline in the overall profits of the security industry, the cost of intellectual property is also a Great expenses.

With the demand for energy-saving, environmental protection and low power consumption, relevant environmental protection agencies are increasingly demanding the power consumption of security products, and they are also one of the major indicators affecting product exports. Contradictory to this is that performance improvement is often based on increased energy consumption.

In general, after years of development, security chips have made rapid progress. Both the technology and the market have achieved great success. In particular, domestic chips have achieved a dominant position. It is understood that Hass Semiconductor's DVR The chip already occupies 60% of the same kind of product, this is a point that domestic security colleagues should be proud of. Looking into the future, the development of security chips will become more rapid and will play an increasingly important role in the security industry chain. For security chip companies, opportunities and challenges coexist, and only when they are close to users and rational development can they maintain long-term progress. And steady growth.