TXN's New Power Management Unit

Texas Instruments (TXN - Analyst Report) or "TI” has launched a low-voltage power management unit, the TPS659119-Q1 for automotive infotainment systems.

TI’s new power management unit has the fastest start-up time in the industry to meet the demands of instant-on automotive applications, such as the entertainment unit and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in an automobile.

The new unit may work better with TI’s own automotive OMAP processors, which include DRA6x infotainment processors and other ARM Cortex -A product offerings.

The infotainment systems may include rear-seat entertainment (movies, games, TV, social networking and others), GPS navigation system, internal connectivity to mobile devices, USB ports and others. Thus, the need for power-efficient microprocessors is required to run the complex features of the infotainment system.

Currently, Intel Corp. (INTC - Analyst Report) and others are offering these low power consumption processors for in-vehicle infotainment systems. Thus, TI may face competition going forward.

Currently, automobile companies such as General Motors Co. (GM - Analyst Report), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM - Analyst Report) and others are trying to attract customers by providing state-of- the-art in-vehicle infotainment systems. It has become one of the crucial marketing strategies for automobile companies worldwide to boost sales. Thus, TI’s continued drive toward launching new products in this segment is allowing manufacturers to deliver advanced features to customers.

According to IHS iSuppli, the electronic content of automotive infotainment equipment may touch $41.2 billion by 2016. TI has the scope to widen its net in this segment but it has to keep up with other competitors by launching better processors in the market.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012, TI generated total revenue of $2.98 billion, down 12.1% sequentially and 12.9% year over year (slightly better than the mid-point of the recently narrowed guidance range of $2.89 billion to $3.01 billion). The Analog business fell 9.4% sequentially and 1.5% year over year. The sequential decline was attributable to broad-based weakness across the HVAL, HPA, SVA and power management product lines.

Texas Instruments has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).