Bulk of MCU revenue moving to 16-bit and 32-bit

30 November 2005 News

The bulk of revenue in the microcontroller market is moving from 8-bit microcontrollers to the higher 16-bit and 32-bit bit devices. By the end of 2009, the combined revenue from 16-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers will reach approximately twice the revenue expected from 8-bit MCUs. This is according to a new report from high-tech market research firm In-Stat.

Says In-Stat analyst Max Baron: "The shift in revenue is primarily due to the appearance of products providing sophisticated features that must employ higher performance and wider-datapath cores. Properly designed, higher bit-width microcontrollers will require less power consumed per workload executed than their counterparts in the 8-bit category."

Although the bulk of unit and revenue upsides for microcontrollers will result from increased demand for higher performance devices, In-Stat reckons that 8-bit microcontrollers will continue to lead in unit shipments over the combined group of 16-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers.

The firm says that unit demand in the 16-bit MCU category is dominated by three applications: smartcards, PC peripherals and hard disk drives. Together, these three applications comprise over 40% of total units shipments. The greatest CAGRs come from control and instrumentation, MP3 players and digital camera applications. Unit volumes in the 32-bit MCU space are also dominated by smartcards it says, however, unit CAGR growth is coming from different applications such as digital wireless, PC DVDs, barcode readers, and security.

For information about the report: 'War of the Worlds: 16- and 32-Bit MCUs Invade ASIC Applications', contact Tina Sheltra, [email protected]

Further reading:

SACEEC celebrates standout industrial innovation on the KITE 2025 show floor
News
Exhibitor innovation took the spotlight at the KITE 2025 as the South African Capital Equipment Export Council announced the winners of its prestigious New Product & Innovation Awards.

Read more...

---

SA team for International Olympiad in Informatics
News
The Institute of Information Technology Professionals South Africa has named the team that will represent South Africa at this year’s International Olympiad in Informatics.

Read more...

---

Anritsu and Bluetest to support OTA measurement
News
Anritsu Company and Sweden-based Bluetest AB have jointly developed an Over-The-Air measurement solution to evaluate the performance of 5G IoT devices compliant with the RedCap specification.

Read more...

---

The current sentiment of the global electronics manufacturing supply chain
News
In its latest report, the Global Electronics Association provides an analysis of the current sentiment and conditions in the global electronics manufacturing supply chain as of June 2025.

Read more...

---

Global semiconductor sales increase in May
News
The Semiconductor Industry Association recently announced global semiconductor sales were $59,0 billion during the month of May 2025, an increase of 19,8%.

Read more...

---

New president for Avnet EMEA
News
Avnet has announced that Avnet Silica’s president, Gilles Beltran, will step into the role of president of Avnet EMEA.

Read more...

---

DARPA sets new record for wireless power beaming
News
In tests performed in New Mexico, the Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay program team recorded over 800 W of power delivered for about 30 seconds with a laser beam crossing 8,6 kilometres.

Read more...

---

Nordic Semiconductor acquires Memfault
RF Design News
With this acquisition, Nordic has launched its first complete chip-to-cloud platform for lifecycle management of connected products.

Read more...

---

Trina storage demonstrates high efficiency and long-term reliability
News
Independent testing confirms 95,2% DC efficiency and 98% capacity retention after one year of operation.

Read more...

---

From the editor's desk: AI – a double-edged sword
Technews Publishing News
As with any powerful tool, AI presents challenges, some of which, if not carefully managed, threaten to undo the potential that it can offer.

Read more...

---