War of the Worlds: 16- and 32-Bit MCUs Invade ASIC Applications
The upsurge in microcontroller business during 2004 and the positive first numbers being reported by the SIA for 2005 suggest that the industry may see a possible upside of 6% year-to-year vs. 2004. Sales in 2004 were even more generous with the high-end microcontrollers of 16-bits and higher showing an improvement in revenue of approximately 53.5% compared with the year before.
In-Stat’s present microcontroller forecast covers almost all individual, application-level, end-use system product forecasts providing In-Stat’s estimate of microcontroller use in these systems. In some of these systems the microcontroller competes with DSP products, ASICs, ASSP, and for the lower volume systems, with FPGAs.
In-Stat believes that the next five years will be marked by the penetration of leading embedded processors and DSP into the high-bit-width microcontroller markets. ARC, ARM and MIPS for example, are in various stages of penetration into applications such as stand-alone flash memory (ARC), MCU chips (ARM) and microcontrollers aimed at smart cards (MIPS). Analog Devices, CEVA, Freescale, Infineon, StarCore, Texas Instruments, and others have pursued DSP architectures that can also function in control workloads.
This report provides a bit-wise MCU forecast and then provides a market overview, detailed data by market segment, and a forecast for over 80 applications for both 16-bit and 32-bit MCUs.
High Performance Multicore Embedded Processors in Network Applications: Analysis and Market Survey
Multicore processors are all the rage. News related to multicore processors is currently the focus of heavy press coverage and a topic of great interest in the analyst community.
The latest semiconductor processes have provided chip designers with sufficient transistors to build practical multicore processors. The increasing functionality required for new embedded processors led to increasing performance per die density. Limits to power density and heat, and the increased leakage currents in below-90nm processors led to this new performance paradigm based on thread-level parallelism.
This report examines the current technology and the prevailing product offerings that will be in production soon. These include Broadcom SiByte, Cavium Networks Octeon, Freescale MPC8641/D, PMC-Sierra RM11200, and RMI XLR.
Independent Memory IP Providers: A Volatile World Going Non-Volatile
As the title implies, the independent Intellectual Property (IP) provider represents the functional design approach to the future, at both the IC and system level. This report relates only to the independent intellectual property provider of memory functions, i.e., those companies whose sole business model is based upon the development and license of pre-defined memory cores. The independent memory intellectual property provider market is forecast to grow from $229.4 million last year, to a projected $410.1 million by 2009, translating to a compound annual growth rate of 12.3%.
This report analyzes and forecasts key market indicators and trends for the independent memory IP provider market, of which there are not many independent providers. Subjects covered include: licensing revenues for independent IP providers, including issues and trends; analysis of the various licensing models, including the revenue splits between the various models; major end-use applications to which the IP is targeted, including second-level applications for each of the major memory types (total market, SRAM, flash, and DRAM); geographic licensing breakdown by major region; major vendor rankings for 2004, relative to 2003; a partial listing of independent memory intellectual property providers, including functional offerings, and web address. Also included is a brief discussion of each memory IP provider.
This report presents an updated, and more in depth, analysis of the structured ASIC market, also referred to as the modular array, platform ASIC and structured array, to name just a few. The structured ASIC market is analyzed by its relationship to the total and cell-based ASIC markets, as well as by design rule, design starts, and design density. The technology is targeted at the increasing number of applications that are falling into the rift being created between high-cost, lower performance programmable logic, and the higher-performance, high-cost standard cell design approach. Current projections for the structured ASIC market are as follows: a 64.5% CAGR between 2004 and 2009, or, from a dollar perspective, dollar shipment value will grow at a rapid pace, going from $209.8 million in 2004 to $2,520.9 million by 2009.
This report includes a detailed examination relative to each of the major configuration options, including array-based, FPGA-based, configuration platform, and several other approaches. Also examined is the relationship between the six major end-use market categories, as well as by second-level applications, for the worldwide market, along with each geographic region. We also take a brief look at the use of this technology for the design of ASSPs. In addition, there will be a look at the various player offerings, major supplier rankings, and a brief profile of each company currently participating in the merchant market.
Field-Configurable Standard Products (FCSPs): Configure It Your Way
This report presents a comprehensive analysis of the Field-Configurable Standard Product (FCSP) market. The FCSP consists of a FPGA, in combination with one or more other functions, in products that are offered to the general merchant market. More specifically, they are targeted, for the most part, to lower-cost, and higher volume applications, relative to a more customized solution. However, and to a moderate degree, the use of the FCSP product will have some similarities to its’ customer-specific, high-complexity relative, most notably in meeting multiple system design requirements and/or applications via the use of a single device. The FCSP market represents one of the few semiconductor product segments that posted year-over-year dollar growth, even in down years. In total, this market is forecast to grow from $92.8 million in 2004 to $476.9 million by 2009.
This market is divided into six major segments; microprocessor-based, DSP-based, PCI-based, memory-based, SerDes-based, and 'other' functional classifications. This report will analyze this technology, as well as forecast future market growth. Examined in this report is consumption of these six functional categories, by geographic region, along with the definitions and comparisons of end-use consumption of this product technology, also by geographic region. Also included, a discussion of the various players in this market, as well as those planning to enter the market within the next 24 months.
A New PC Revolution: Usage Models & Technology Alter Future PC Designs
The underlying demand and requirements for PCs is rapidly changing. Just when the PC seemed to reach a plateau as a business appliance, new technology and applications are driving new usage models. The convergence of computing and communications, changing dynamics in the industry, and a changing infrastructure in the semiconductor industry are all leading to major changes in the PC and consumer electronics industries. This report examines some of the major influences driving changes in the PC market, what it means for future growth and potential designs, and how it will drive changes in the semiconductor market.
