The Tough World Of Mixed Signal David Milne had a huge success with Wolfson Microelectronics taking it from a university design-house spin-off to become the best mixed signal fabless company in the world. Back in 2002, Milne summed up the mixed signal scene: “ST is strong, Zoran is big in DVDs, TI is the 900lb Gorilla in DSP, Philips should be there but is pretty low-key and doesn’t shout about it; National is putting in a big play in this area. We’re competing on the mixed signal front with Maxim, Cirrus and TI (through their Burr Brown area),” Milne ticked off the players, adding “there are not many doing high capability mixed signal in this sort of space. Mixed signal is a very open market. Some of the big players like Maxim have only ten per cent of the overall mixed signal market.”