While the overall semiconductor industry is forecast to experience a fairly modest 6.1% compound annual growth rate from 2003 to 2008, the customer-specific, cell-based 64-bit embedded processor market will thrive, with forecasted growth over that timeframe of 82.7%, according to In-Stat/MDR (http://www.instat.com). Much of the robust growth in this category will be driven by consumer purchases of cellular handsets, PCs, and DVD players, the high tech research firm says.

Most manufacturers today are using two 32-bit width proces-sors rather than a true 64-bit width MPU, but this will change rapidly over the next two years as more move to true 64-bit technology. Similar to its predecessors, the 4-bit, 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit em-bedded processors, the greatest growth opportunity for the 64-bit width processor will be in a wide variety of Application-Specific Standard Products (ASSPs), which are already beginning to emerge. In addition, it is important to recognize that changes in recent years have resulted in the communications market, rather than the computer market, becoming the industry driver of the future.  

A recent report from In-Stat/MDR also found:

• Worldwide merchant market dollar consumption of customer-specific, cell-based designs, independent of complexity, and containing at least one embedded block of 64-bit MPU is forecast to increase from a mere $91.2 million in 2003, to $1,855.7 million by 2008.
  
• From an embedded 64-bit MPU intellectual property perspective, ARM will become the dominant architecture this year, having surpassed the proprietary approach.

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved