8 bit microcontroller market
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From: Ian Bell on 29 Aug 2006 16:33 I am trying to get a handle on the current (or at least fairly recent) 8 bit microcontroller market. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence around, usually to show a particular manufacturer in a favourable light but apart from spending several grand on a marketing report I have been unable to find a set of basic figures for recent years. There are broad figures up to 2000 in the FAQ but nothing more detailed or recent. Any ideas where this can be found at little or no cost. I am thinking market share by value, shipments and processor type - that sort of thing. Ian
From: Eric on 30 Aug 2006 13:44 Ian Bell wrote: > I am trying to get a handle on the current (or at least fairly recent) 8 bit > microcontroller market. The market has become more specialized in recent years, and it's hard to make generalizations about which maker is the cheapest, or the best able to fill orders, etc. I always start by trying to determine what mix of on-chip peripherals I want, and what kind of processing speed and power dissipation needs I have. These are some of the basic families to look at: AVR, PIC, hc08, 8051, h8. I'm sure there are others. The 8051 segment is huge, with many vendors offering specific advantages. Silabs is my current favorite for higher performance needs, but their are cheaper makers if your needs are very basic. I also like the royalty free USB and Ethernet stacks from Silabs and that helps to offset any cost issues if you need a high quantity. If you really hate Harvard, the hc08/hcs08 from Freescale is always a good choice. I think the current numbers show them out front overall, but as I said, you have to be careful to consider specialized needs in today's crowded 8-bit market. This is not a one-size-fits-all kind of market any more. I've went to 16 bits for many of my new designs. The MSP430 is very good if you need low power operation (they cover a wide range of pinouts and options), and the hc12/9s12 from Freescale are similar to their 8 bit offerings, but improved in many ways. However, the biggest single trend in the past couple years is the popularization of the Arm 32-bit devices. You can get a nice lpc2103 for a cheaper price than many 8 or 16 bit devices. The new Cortex M3 devices from Luminary are a recent development in the low-end of the 32 bit segment. Five years ago it was much easier to select an 8-bit device. Now there are many to pick from, and you can even scale up to 16 or 32 bits and still stay within your cost constraints in some cases. One of the other big considerations is your software toolsets. Some families have better open source options and that might weigh heavily if your quantity requirements are low. Once you pick a software toolset you're likely going to be locked-in for a long time, so pick wisely. Eric
From: Robert_Teufel on 30 Aug 2006 14:21 Ian Bell wrote: > I am trying to get a handle on the current (or at least fairly recent) 8 bit > microcontroller market. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence around, > usually to show a particular manufacturer in a favourable light but apart > from spending several grand on a marketing report I have been unable to > find a set of basic figures for recent years. There are broad figures up to > 2000 in the FAQ but nothing more detailed or recent. > > Any ideas where this can be found at little or no cost. I am thinking market > share by value, shipments and processor type - that sort of thing. > > Ian Hi Ian, first of all, I appreciate your contributions to this group, that's why I will take a few minutes and try to answer your question to the best of my abilities. I work for a company that manufactures 8051 derivatives and we follow the market all the time and I try to keep this as unbiased as possible. The leader in units is Microchip, accounting for all the PIC1x devices. The leader in Dollar volume is probably still Freescale (latest data I have is 2004), including ancient devices such as the HC05, all 08 devices, HC11 and may be some more. The 8051 claims to to have the widest coverage of applications or in other words, most designs of all 8-bits. The AVR does not make it into this most... list, yet but it is definitely a another "force" in the 8-bit. Going with any of these architectures should be fairly save for years to come. At least it will not force you to switch architectures, nevertheless, devices will be discontinued as older manufacturing processes become unavailable and the design can not easily be transferred to newer technologies. E.g. I would be very reluctant to use a 5V device that has been on the market for several years, as 5V compatible processes are approaching the end of their life-cycle. There are (somewhat expensive) options to make a newer process 5V compatible but this requires a significant redesign. As my company is still designing new 8-bit devices but focusing more on 32-bit ARM devices, I would really recommend to have a look at the available ARM7 devices. If it does not need to be a sub $1 device, your standby current does not need to be below 1 uA and a package of 48-pins is not too big, there are plenty of options. Robert
From: Bill Giovino on 30 Aug 2006 14:55 Except for companies where the 8-bit is their primary company strategy (like Microchip), there is a subtle defocusing of 8-bit from the major players in order to make room in the fab for higher margin parts. The real growth for embedded systems is in low-power 16-bit processors. But really, the answer to your question all depends on what you want the data for. Are you looking to serve a market with tools, compilers, services, etc. or are you planning a new microcontroller introduction? Are you looking at competitive or non-competitive cores and markets? You have to treat the 8051 separately because it is less an 8-bit product, rather, it is a separate market segment. These are all important issues. Regards, Bill Giovino Executive Editor http://Microcontroller.com "Ian Bell" <ruffrecords(a)yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message news:44f4a865.0(a)entanet... > I am trying to get a handle on the current (or at least fairly recent) 8 bit > microcontroller market. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence around, > usually to show a particular manufacturer in a favourable light but apart > from spending several grand on a marketing report I have been unable to > find a set of basic figures for recent years. There are broad figures up to > 2000 in the FAQ but nothing more detailed or recent. > > Any ideas where this can be found at little or no cost. I am thinking market > share by value, shipments and processor type - that sort of thing. > > Ian
From: Joerg on 30 Aug 2006 15:08
Hello Ian, > I am trying to get a handle on the current (or at least fairly recent) 8 bit > microcontroller market. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence around, > usually to show a particular manufacturer in a favourable light but apart > from spending several grand on a marketing report I have been unable to > find a set of basic figures for recent years. There are broad figures up to > 2000 in the FAQ but nothing more detailed or recent. > > Any ideas where this can be found at little or no cost. I am thinking market > share by value, shipments and processor type - that sort of thing. > You've got good advice by Eric and Robert and I won't add to the HW aspect since I am certainly not the expert here. However, there is one thing that I regularly had to consider as a manager or when designing uC into otherwise analog circuitry for my clients: Availability of programmers. This is where (so far) the 8051 has beaten all others hands down. It was always easy to find local talent to write 8051 code while other uC architectures would have often forced us to fly someone in. Another thought is about what you want to do with it and whether the mfg supplies enough info for the task at hand. For example, twice I had considered the MSP430 because it would have been a glove fit but I was unable to crank details about the DCO and port drivers/receivers out of TI. So I went the analog route. -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com |