ARM takes huge slice of 32-bit Risc arena
electronicsweekly.co.uk
Richard Ball
Embedded Risc processor shipments doubled last year, with ARM claiming a massive slice of the market for 32-bit processors.
ARM's semiconductor partners almost trebled the number of devices they shipped in 2000, reaching a figure of around 414 million, according to industry analyst Andrew Allison. This gives ARM over 75 per cent of the embedded Risc market.
In his latest report on the sector, Allison points out that StrongARM will have a more important role.
"Intel's re-commitment last year to the architecture formerly known as StrongARM has serious implications for the rest of the market," he said.
However, the figures indicate that MIPS Technologies had a poor 2000 in terms of processor shipments, with 58 million devices, a rise of just three per cent on 1999.
On the plus side for MIPS, it had an excellent year selling licences for its new range of processors, such as the 4Kc and 5Kc. This year the firm will expect to ship significantly more devices.
And the different market focus of the two firms also means that MIPS can ship far fewer devices, and still maintain revenue growth.
"This year is probably a make-or-break one for the MIPS and SH architectures," added Allison.
Of the remaining processors, Hitachi's SH devices saw moderate growth, while PowerPC doubled shipments.
In total around 540 million processors were shipped last year, a rise of 105 per cent over 1999. |
