PALO ALTO, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- October 24, 2006 -- Use of 8-bit microcontrollers increased 34%
between 2005 and 2006, according to the third edition of The William
Baldwin Group's report, "Marketing to Your Embedded Engineering Customer -
2006." The five-volume report presents the results of an extensive
questionnaire submitted to 29,000 e-clips subscribers.
Over 640 engineers responded to a wide range of questions about the
devices and tools they use, where they find new products, what
information they trust, and how they select vendors.
The survey showed substantial increases in the use of 8-bit MCUs (34%)
and 32-bit MCUs (16.3%), while FPGA use dropped 8.8% and ASIC use
dropped 17.4%. (Graph available at
https://william-baldwin.com/ftp//IC_use_2005-2006.jpg.)
"Traditionally, FPGAs have been used as glue logic and to accelerate
repetitive calculations," said Nancy B. Green, William Baldwin Group
principal and the study's author. "Newer microcontrollers are so highly
integrated that they may be reducing the need for glue logic. What's more,
high performance MCUs that offer 150-plus MIPS and DSP instruction
extensions may obviate the need for hardware acceleration. Shorter product
life cycles may also be contributing to the shift. It's a lot easier to
write code in C/C++ and run it on a processor, than it is to write code in
C/C++ and then translate it to a hardware description language."
Other noteworthy changes from the 2005 survey include:
-- FPGA use is closely tied to ASIC use; 74% of FPGAs are used with an
ASIC.
-- Assembly language is not dead. Nearly half of engineers do some
programming in assembly; 15% use it exclusively!
-- Controller features, tools and technical support are equally important
in selecting a vendor.
-- The Internet, specifically Google.com, is the first place engineers go
to find information about new products.
The report is presented in five volumes, as follows:
Volume 1: Embedded Engineer Survey Overview (18 pages, 10 charts)
Volume 2: What Engineers Do (22 pages, 12 charts, 6 tables)
Volume 3: Internet Strategies for Embedded Markets (29 pages,
14 charts, 5 tables)
Volume 4: Print Advertising and Public Relations Strategies (37 pages,
24 charts, 5 tables)
Volume 5: More Traffic at Your Booth (30 pages, 11 charts, 6 tables)
$1999 if purchased before October 31, 2006 at
https://william-baldwin.com/answers.htm.
Contact Information: Contact:
Nancy B. Green
1 650-856-6192
Email Contact
