Re: 8 bit microcontroller market

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

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