Although digital radio is unlikely to be top of many consumer’s shopping lists right now, it looks set to become one of the next big ‘killer applications’.

We’ve all become familiar with digital music over the past few ears, now the radio industry is betting on digital content to both maintain and grow its audiences. They are, after all, up against quite a challenge in enticing consumers given the ever-growing entertainment field now available to consumers ranging - from TV programmes on demand to 3D home gaming.

At the same time semiconductor manufacturers are circling, hoping that digital radio will supply them with a new, lucrative market.  Someone, after all, has got to provide the chips to go into all the digital radios that electronics companies are hoping consumers will upgrade to.

According to high-tech market research company In-Stat, digital satellite radio will have impressive growth in its subscriber base over the next several years, with 3 million net new subscribers forecast annually in the United States alone through 2008. Half of the survey’s respondents had heard of satellite radio, and felt they had a good idea as to what it offers.  iBiquity’s HD is less well-known. iBiquity Digital is the sole developer and licenser of HD Radio™ technology in the U.S., which is transforming today's AM and FM radio stations to digital.

In- Stat’s Technology Adoption Panel of US consumers highlighted a growing public awareness of digital satellite radio services. A surprisingly large 50 per cent of the survey's respondents had heard of satellite radio, and felt they had a good idea as to what it can offer.

Price is still a barrier for many consumers, particularly with new HD radios. HD radio receiver prices must decline before they are of interest to many consumers, according to In-stat’s research.  After-market FM/AM digital car stereos are just starting to hit the stores. However, at around $500 or more, they mostly appeal to early adopters.

But this doesn’t mean that we’ll suddenly see high street stores dropping analogue radios in the same way they have VHS recorders.  Analog radios are so cheap, it would be impossible for digital radio to compete on all levels.  You’re not going to pay a high price for a radio to use in the shower, for example. Neither is every household going to suddenly ditch their analogue radios overnight.  The switch over, as from Vinyl to CD will take time.

Manufacturers, however, are betting on the fact that we’ll pay for better sound in our cars.  Thus car owners are being touted as the obvious early digital radio adopters.

To push in-car radio quality to new boundaries and entice the mainstream consumers manufacturer’s are putting iBiquity's software into bed with HD digital signal processing chips from the likes of Philips. HD Radio technology adds sidebands to existing AM and FM radio frequencies. The sidebands carry additional signals that enable conventional AM radios to produce "FM-type" sound, and enable FM radios to produce "CD-type" quality sound.

Philips is working closely with iBiquity Digital - the sole developer and licenser of digital terrestrial AM and FM radio broadcast technology or HD radio - to bring to volume production the first cost-effective HD radio ASIC semiconductor solution.

Philips has developed an HD-radio ASIC using an ARM9 microprocessor. The Philips SAF3550 is designed in such a way that that standard algorithms needed for the basic HD Radio functionality are realized in hardware, while additional functions are designed flexibly in software running on the ARM core, which enables to keep the pace with new applications to come in the future.

The Philips IC is a dedicated design specifically for this application. This implementation will provide optimal performance with the minimal need for external components as it has the advantages of being small footprint, thereby  providing a very cost effective solution.

The SAF3550 has been designed for a coprocessor architecture with the Philips car DSP SAF7730 – as the SAF7730 is established as the standard car DSP in the OEM domain, the SAF3550 HD Radio chip can be easily integrated into most existing and future car radio platforms, maintains Philips.

Together with the Philips tuner TEF6721, it provides a complete state of the art AM/FM/HD system solution from the tuner through the entire processing chain.

The industry thinks HD will be the next big thing – but with public awareness still low, only time will tell.  In the meantime it looks like the price tag will have to drop to attract consumers.