Embedded Processor Watch

Editor: Jim Turley

In This Issue:

• ARM the Big Winner for 1998; Motorola's 68K Still on Top
• Industry Resources: Emerging IC Applications '99
• New Embedded IC Announcements

ARM the Big Winner for 1998; Motorola's 68K Still on Top

Worldwide shipments of high-end (32-bit and 64-bit) embedded microprocessors grew by 37% from the previous year, to almost 250 million units. As in previous years, the volume leader was Motorola's deathless 68K family which, including ColdFire shipments, surpassed 83 million units in 1998, or almost exactly one-third of the worldwide total.

Once again, the volume of 32-bit embedded microprocessors exceeded the volume of PCs by about 2-to-1. In 1998, one new 32- bit embedded microprocessor was shipped for every man, woman, and child living in the United States.

A big winner in 1998 was ARM, which saw a whopping 5x growth in its unit volume. ARM's massed hordes shipped an estimated 48 million ARM-based ASICs and standard products, far above the company's 1997 total of less than 10 million. After years of signing licensees like there was no tomorrow, ARM appears to finally be reaping what it has sown.

Other growth rates were more modest. The number-one RISC family, MIPS, grew a modest 4%, to 50 million units. After MIPS' huge boost on the shoulders of Nintendo and Sony, 1998 was comparatively quiet.

Hitachi's SuperH family grew 10%, to 26 million units. It, too, was a previous video-game champion, but with Sega pulling its Saturn console (which uses three SuperH processors) from North American shelves earlier this year, Hitachi took a bit hit in unit volume. Sega's new Dreamcast console (which contains only one SuperH processor) does not go on sale in North America until late this year, forcing a painful lull in SuperH shipments.

Sales of 32-bit embedded x86 processors (386-class and up) rose a respectable 36%, to about 12.5 million units. Of that total, Intel garnered about two-thirds and AMD took one-third, while National Semiconductor and ST fought over the fractions. That volume puts x86 in fifth place in overall embedded rankings. Far from dominating sales the way it does in the PC arena, x86 is a strong, but decidedly second-tier, competitor.

Rounding out the field this year were Intel's i960 (9 million), ST's ST20 (7 million), PowerPC (4.9 million), AMD's 29K (1.7 million), Motorola MCore (1 million), and SPARC (< 1 million).

PowerPC grew a healthy 40% over the previous year. Although this is well off the pace of the previous two years, where PowerPC sales doubled or tripled every twelve months, it reflects a maturation of the architecture and the end of the "startup effect," where any increase from near zero appears huge. IBM shipped a somewhat greater volume of embedded PowerPC chips than Motorola did, aided by its lower prices. Motorola, on the other hand, has more profitable, higher-end products.

Total 1998 unit volumes and growth rates follow. (This information was collected by MicroDesign Resources, 1999)

Industry Resources: Emerging IC Applications '99

Market researchers IC Insights have produced a lengthy report entitled "Emerging IC Applications, 1999 Edition," that covers the self-evident topic. The report predicts future market opportunities for chips by type of device, by application, and by geographic region. Numerous tables, charts, and graphs punctuate the predictive prose.

The report sells for $1,390 in either printed or CD-ROM format; additional copies are $395 apiece. For more information, contact IC Insights (Scottsdale, Ariz.) at 602.348.1133 or visit http://www.icinsights.com.

New Embedded IC Announcements

ST75C530 (STMicroelectronics) Monolithic device for telephones, answering machines, and faxes includes DSP and analog front-end functions for V.17 and V.32bis fax/modem. Price: $12/100,000; Production: Now; Call ST at 781.259.0300.

CS5529 (Crystal) Delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter uses a single power supply and settles in one conversion cycle; industrial temperature range. Price: $3.80/1,000; Production: Now; Call Crystal at 512.912.3736.

INA121 (Burr-Brown) FET-input instrumentation amplifier has low, 4-pA input-bias current and supply range from 2.3V to 18V; in DIP and SO packages. Price: $2.35/1,000; Production: Now; Call Burr- Brown at 800.548.6132.

ADS7843 (Burr-Brown) Single-chip touch-screen controller has 12- bit ADC, consumes 0.6 mW at 75 kHz, SSI/SPI interface, and "touch interrupt" alert signal. Price: $4.95/1,000; Production: Now;Call Burr-Brown at 800.548.6132.

HM5225xx5A (Hitachi) Synchronous DRAMs have 256-Mbit capacity with standard packaging for easy design of PC-100 DIMMs; in «4, «8, and «16 organization. Price: $500/1; Production: Now; Call Hitachi at 800.285.1601.