National Semiconductor Corporation (NSM) is an OEM of analog and mixed signal integrated circuits. Although the company continues to manufacture a number of other products as well, corporate restructurings over the last few years has increased its focus in the high-performance analog space. The Gartner Group has released its final estimates for 2006, according to which, semiconductor sales grew 10.2% to $262.7 billion. The latest SIA forecast pegs it at $248.8 billion (up 9.4% over 2005, with the analog component growing 16.8% to $37.3 billion in 2006). The market is expected to grow 10% to 273.8 billion in 2007.

Semiconductor devices are generally divided into three categories analog, digital and radio frequency (RF). Analog semiconductors condition and regulate real world information such as light, temperature, speed, pressure, power and electrical currents. Digital logic semiconductors process information in only two states. Mixed-signal semiconductors combine both analog and digital technology into a single device. Typically, an analog sensor samples real world information, and then converts the input into an electronic analog signal, which is converted into a digital format for further digital processing. The analog and mixed-signal markets tend to be more varied and specialized, with customized products that have longer life cycles than the digital industry segment. There is an ongoing drive to decrease the number of discrete devices, lessen power requirements and shrink the size of the existing devices, which correspondingly increase performance and reliability. Consequently, a greater amount of functionality is being consolidated into increasingly smaller devices.

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