Embedded Systems Design Europe - November 2007 - (Page 5) commentary Editor Colin Holland Tel +44 (0) 208 319 1324 email: cholland@cmp.com Editorial address: PO Box 32444, London SE18 3ZP Advertising Production Manager Lydia Gijsegom & Maggie Fleerackers Tel +32 (0) 2 740 00 50 email: production@eetimes.be Circulation Luc Desimpel Tel +32 (0) 2 740 0055 email: luc.desimpel@eetimes.be Art Manager Jean-Paul Speliers Tel +32 (0)2 740 0052 email: jean-paul.speliers@eetimes.be Finance Ricardo Pinto Ferreira Tel +32 (0)2 740 0051 email: ricardo.pintoferreira@eetimes.be Advertisement contacts see page 43 Editorial Director Jean-Pierre Joosting Tel +32 (0)2 740 0056 email: jean-pierre.joosting@eetimes.be Publisher Andre Rousselot Tel +32 (0)2 740 0053 email: aroussel@cmp.com European Business Press a CMP Company 144 Avenue Eugène Plasky 1030 Brussels - Belgium Tel: +32 (0)2 740 00 50 Fax: +32 (0)2 740 00 59 Email: andre.rousselot@eetimes.be www.embedded.com/europe VAT Registration: BE 461.357.437 RPM: Brussels Company Number: 0461357437 Electronics Group Paul Miller President, Electronics Group CMP Technolgy Steve Weitzner President and Chief Executive Officer Adam Marder Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Tony Uphoff President, CMP Business Technology Group Roberta Faletra President, CMP Channel Paul Miller President, CMP Electronics Group Philip Chapnick President, CMP Game, Dobb’s, ICMI Group Ann Marie Miller Corporate Senior Vice President Sales Marlieu Jolla Hall Senior Vice President, Human Resources Marie Myers Senior Vice President, Manufacturing Alexandra Raine Senior Vice President, Communications © 2007 E.B.P. 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Subscription queries tel: +32 2 740 00 50 • Printed by Perka. 32-bit MCU market comes under scrutiny T he potential of the market for high-end microcontrollers (MCUs) has been brought in to focus again with the news that MIPS Technologies is going head-to-head with ARM and others in targeting its technology for the 32-bit MCU market – see page 6 for more on this. We highlighted one of the drivers for this move in last months issue with the news from Frost & Sullivan that between 2006 and 2010 the market volume for all automotive microcontrollers will expand around 63 percent. This will produce a market growth from $5.83 billion in 2006 to $9.52 billion in 2010. An alternative take on this growth is included in the story on page 6 and comes from Semico which highlights the share that the 32-bit devices will gain. First of many of the customers that MIPS hopes to sign up is Microchip – see page 39 – which claims to have 60,000 customers and is a major force in the 8- and 16-bit MCU sector. Microchip is reported to have evaluated a host of other alternatives, such as those offered by ARM, ARC and Tensilica and it has taken about two years from the time the decision was made until samples were ready. It says that it “wanted to be sure that every last detail had been addressed, including having development kits ready for shipment.” It has working silicon for more than six months, and it has already gone through one revision of the product. So what is the advantage of signing up for an ‘off-the-shelf’ option as Microchip has. One is of course an opportunity of getting to market much more quickly by employing an existing core. But more important, it gives Microchip and its customers access to the existing ecosystem that surrounds the MIPS M4K core. And being an early adopter has enabled Microchip to have some input into the core itself with the core’s trace capability borrows some of Microchip’s technology, as it consumes fewer pins and gates than a traditional MIPS product. Another example is the complex breakpoints, as the architecture now contains a sequential breakpoint capability. And the number of shadow register sets has been extended to increase performance. Microchip’s first 32-bit products aren’t the highest performers or the lowest-power alternatives on the market, but Microchip is expected to take advantage of the scalability of the modern MIPS architecture. Over time, the MIPS-Microchip pairing could shift the power balance in the standard-core-based MCU market. MIPS can offer an alternative to ARM for anyone not already in the 32-bit MCU market. Those who already have homegrown 32-bit controllers could supplement their ARM solutions with MIPS-based MCUs. Colin Holland is editor of Embedded Systems Design Europe. He can be contacted at cholland@cmp. com. www.embedded.com | embedded systems design europe | NOVEMBER – DECEMBER 2007 5 005_ESDE.indd 5 9/11/07 12:21:15 http://www.embedded.com/europe http://www.embedded.com
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