Hardware Decisions for Embedded Systems Design in Asia/Pacific

End-User Analysis Hardware Decisions for Embedded Systems Design in Asia/Pacific Abstract: Over 900 embedded systems designers in Asia/Pacific responded to our survey of hardware decisions. Currently, 46.3 percent use 32-bit in their designs, while 55.3 percent expect to use 32-bit in future projects. By Daya Nadamuni Strategic Market Statement Design complexity is rising rapidly in Asia/Pacific based on hardware decisions being made by embedded systems designers. Publication Date: 11 March 2003

2 Hardware Decisions for Embedded Systems Design in Asia/Pacific Survey Overview Over 900 embedded designers responded to the joint EETimes Asia/Pacific-Gartner Dataquest survey of embedded designers. The survey was extensive and detailed, with the goals being to understand usage patterns, examine buying behavior and delineate trends in the marketplace. Respondents were asked about processor architectures in their designs, development tool usage, languages used, methodologies used for application development and their satisfaction or lack thereof with the tools they used. They were asked about factors influencing purchase decisions for hardware and tools. They were asked about hardware components that their companies were planning to upgrade and whether their designs were network enabled, if they used embedded databases and the use of embedded Web browsers and Web servers. Gartner Dataquest looks at the respondent demographics and the hardware design decisions made. This is the first in a series of Gartner Dataquest Perspectives looking at the results of the survey. Over 900 embedded systems designers from several Asia/Pacific countries responded to the survey. Of these, 73.4 percent were from China, followed by 16 percent from Taiwan and 10.6 percent from other countries in Asia/Pacific, such as India, Singapore and South Korea. Of the respondents, 31.6 percent worked for companies that had less than $1 million in revenue, while at the other end of the spectrum, 11.2 percent of the respondents worked for companies with annual revenue of $500 million or more. Thirty percent of the respondents worked for telecommunications/data communications companies, followed by 20.9 percent of respondents who worked for consumer electronics companies. By region, 33.1 percent of respondents from China worked for telecom/datacom companies, followed by 21.5 percent in the industrial controls arena. Taiwanese respondents worked primarily in the computers and computer peripherals and consumer electronics sector. Embedded systems designers in other Asia/Pacific countries were working in the industrial controls and telecom industries. Of the respondents, 65.6 percent were using processor cores in their designs. By region, 65.7 percent of Chinese designers are using processor cores in their designs as compared with 69.2 percent in Taiwan and 56.8 percent in the Rest of Asia/Pacific. Processor selection at the beginning of the project continues to be the primary stage at which the selection is made. For the real-time operating system (RTOS), 30 percent of the respondents made the selection at the stage of developing the overall system specification, while another 30 percent made the decision at the next stage the conceptual design stage. 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

8-, 16- and 32-bit architectures are well represented in the usage patterns for microprocessing units (MPU) and microcontroller units (MCU). Currently, 46.3 percent of designers are using 32-bit in their designs, while 55.3 percent expect to use 32-bit in future projects. The growth is coming primarily at the expense of 8-bit. The biggest shift is in Taiwan, with 70.3 percent of designers expecting to use 32-bit architectures in their future design. The use of 32-bit architectures is highest in the telecom/datacom sector, while 8-bit architectures were strongly represented in the industrial controls and instrumentation sector, followed by consumer electronics. A large portion of the MCUs that Chinese designers use are from Intel, Motorola and Atmel. This pattern is seen in the Rest of Asia/Pacific as well, though Taiwanese designers indicated high usage of other vendors products in addition to Intel, Motorola, Atmel and Samsung. National Semiconductor's products were mainly used in China, while Philips products saw good usage in China and the Rest of Asia/Pacific. Advanced Risc Machines (ARM) was used most in Taiwan. Of respondents, 48.2 percent expect to purchase or upgrade liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for the next embedded project, followed by 32- bit MCUs and CPU/digital signal processor (DSP) hybrid chips. LCDs were selected most frequently by designers in China and the Rest of Asia/Pacific, while Taiwanese designers focused on 32-bit MCUs. The Design Environment: Respondent Demographics By Country Over 900 embedded systems designers from several Asia/Pacific countries responded to the survey. Of these, 73.4 percent were from China, followed by 16 percent from Taiwan and 10.6 percent from other countries in Asia/Pacific such as India, Singapore and South Korea (see Figure 1). By Company Size By company size, there was varied representation across the spectrum in terms of revenue. Of the respondents, 31.6 percent worked for companies with less than $1 million in revenue, while at the other end of the range, 11.2 percent of the respondents worked for companies with revenue of over $500 million (see Figure 2). By Industry Respondents came from a number of different industries. Telecom/datacom had the highest response rate with 30 percent of survey respondents indicating this as their primary industry, followed by the consumer electronics and industrial controls markets (see Figure 3). 3 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

4 Hardware Decisions for Embedded Systems Design in Asia/Pacific Figure 1 Respondents by Country Rest of Asia (10.6%) China (73.4%) Taiwan (16.0%) 113414-00-01 Figure 2 Respondents by Company Size $20 Million to $24.9 Million (3.7%) $500 Million and Above (11.2%) $100 Million to $499.9 Million (7.2%) $25 Million to $99.9 Million (6.4%) $15 Million to $19.9 Million (6.3%) $10 Million to $14.9 Million (7.1%) $5 Million to $9.9 Million (8.8%) Less Than $1 Million (31.6%) $1 Million to $4.9 Million (17.7%) 113414-00-02 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

5 Figure 3 Respondents by Industry Military/Aerospace Applications (6.5%) Others (1.6%) Automotive (3.3%) Design Services (4.7%) Telecommunications/ Data Communications (30.0%) Computers/Computer Peripherals (12.8%) Industrial Controls and Instrumentation Systems (20.2%) Consumer Electronics (20.9%) 113414-00-03 By Region There were some significant differences in industry responses. China had 33.1 percent of respondents from the telecom/datacom industry while Taiwan had the highest number of responses from computers and computer peripherals, closely followed by consumer electronics. The Rest of Asia/Pacific had the most responses in industrial controls and instrumentation (see Figure 4). 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

6 Hardware Decisions for Embedded Systems Design in Asia/Pacific Figure 4 Industry by Region Industry Automotive Computers/Computer Peripherals Telecommunications/ Data Communications China Taiwan Rest of Asia/Pacific Military/Aerospace Applications Consumer Electronics Industrial Controls and Instrumentation Systems Design Services Others Percentage of Respondents 113414-00-04 Source; Gartner Dataquest (January 2003) The Design Environment: Hardware Respondents were asked a number of questions regarding their use of MPUs,MCUsandcoresintheirdesigns. Cores Of the respondents, 65.6 percent were using processor cores in their designs. By region, 65.7 percent of Chinese designers are using processor cores in their designs as compared with 69.2 percent in Taiwan and 56.8 percent in the Rest of Asia/Pacific (see Figure 5 and Figure 6). 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

7 Figure 5 Overall Processor Core Usage Yes (65.6%) No (34.4%) 113414-00-05 Figure 6 Processor Core Usage by Region Percent 80 70 60 No Yes 50 40 30 20 10 0 China Taiwan Rest of Asia/Pacific 113414-00-06 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

8 Hardware Decisions for Embedded Systems Design in Asia/Pacific Microcomponent Usage Across the region, 32-bit MPUs and MCUs are the most widely used, followed by 8-bit MCUs. In the future, designers expect to increase their use of 32-bit MCU/MPUs. This growth is primarily coming at the expense of 8-bit MCUs as future designs become more complex. 32-bit floatingpoint DSPs are also expected to see increases in usage in future projects (see Figure 7). Figure 7 Current and Future Processor Usage by Architecture Percent 60 50 40 Current Future 30 20 10 0 8-Bit 16-Bit 32-Bit 64-Bit DSP 16-Bit DSP 20-, 24- or 32-Bit DSP 32-Bit Floating Point Others 113414-00-07 By region, 45.2 percent of Chinese designers use 32-bit microcomponents, followed by 8-bit and 16-bit architectures. Similar trends are seen in Taiwan and other Asia/Pacific countries. Regarding future usage of microcomponents by architecture, some dramatic shifts are evident in the regional distribution. Taiwan's shifts heavily favor 32-bit architectures and trend away from 8-bit architectures. DSP 32-bit floating-point architectures will have higher usage levels in future projects especially in the Rest of Asia/Pacific. Of the three regions in the survey, China expects to have the highest usage rates of 16-bit DSPs (see Figure 8 through Figure 10). 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

9 Figure 8 Current Processor Architecture by Region Processor Architecture 8-Bit 16-Bit 32-Bit 64-Bit DSP 16-Bit DSP 20-, 24- or 32-Bit DSP 32-Bit Floating Point Others China Taiwan Rest of Asia/Pacific Percentage of Respondents 113414-00-08 Figure 9 Future Processor Architecture by Region Processor Architecture 8-Bit 16-Bit 32-Bit 64-Bit DSP 16-Bit DSP 20-, 24- or 32-Bit DSP 32-Bit Floating Point Others China Taiwan Rest of Asia/Pacific Percentage of Respondents 113414-00-09 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

10 Hardware Decisions for Embedded Systems Design in Asia/Pacific Figure 10 Current Microcomponent Usage by Industry Automotive Computers/Computer Peripherals Telecommunications/ Data Communications 8-Bit 16-Bit 32-Bit 64-Bit DSP 16-Bit DSP 20-, 24- or 32-Bit Military/Aerospace Applications Consumer Electronics Industrial Controls and Instrumentation Systems Design Services Others Percent 113414-00-10 As expected, some strong correlation exists between the type of architecture used and the industry. For example, more complex electronic devices will tend to use 32-bit architectures, while simple devices or devices that are single function and of limited complexity will use 8- and 16-bit architectures. Telecom/datacom has the highest usage of 32-bit architecture, almost 62.3 percent of the respondents in that sector, while 8- bit architecture is used most in industrial controls and instrumentation. Fixed-point DSPs and floating-point DSPs seem to have the most usage in military and aerospace applications. Regarding future projects, the usage of 32-bit architectures goes up significantly across all industries. The uptake of 64-bit architectures is especially seen in the military/aerospace sector. 16-bit architectures are 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

11 well-represented in the computers/computer peripherals, consumer electronics, and industrial controls and instrumentation markets (see Figure 11). Figure 11 Future Microcomponent Usage by Industry Automotive Computers/Computer Peripherals Telecommunications/ Data Communications Military/Aerospace Applications 8-Bit 16-Bit 32-Bit 64-Bit DSP 16-Bit DSP 20-, 24- or 32-Bit Consumer Electronics Industrial Controls and Instrumentation Systems Design Services Others Percent 113414-00-11 Hardware User Preferences and Buying Decisions Of the respondents, 59.1 percent considered component availability to be very critical, followed by total system development cost. Technical support and quality and availability of development tools were close behind. Also, 61.6 percent considered the financial health of the supplier to be somewhat critical followed by the size of components and the lack of firmware. 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

12 Hardware Decisions for Embedded Systems Design in Asia/Pacific Figure 12 Hardware User Preferences Only 1.6 percent of respondents considered technical documentation to be not very critical (see Figure 12). On-Chip Memory BDM/JTAG Support Code Compatibility Not Very Critical Somewhat Critical Very Critical Component Availability Component Cost Financial Health of Supplier Lack of Firmware Power Usage/Consumption Quality and Availability of Development Tools Size of Components Speed/System Performance Technical Documentation Technical Support Total System Development Cost Percent 113414-00-12 By region, the availability of on-chip memory is considered very critical in the Rest of Asia/Pacific. Background debug mode (BDM)/Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) emulator support is very critical in Taiwan but not that critical in China. Survey respondents in the Rest of Asia/Pacific and China were evenly divided between somewhat critical and very critical regarding code compatibility. Taiwanese designers rated this factor as somewhat critical. Component availability is rated very critical in China with less than 2 percent of designers believing that it is not critical. Similar responses were seen in Taiwan and the Rest of Asia/Pacific. Component cost is considered very critical in Taiwan and the Rest of Asia/Pacific and 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

less so in China. Financial health of the supplier is considered critical across all three regions. The lack of firmware is considered somewhat critical across all the regions. Taiwan is evenly split on power usage/consumption of the hardware as somewhat critical or very critical. The quality and availability of development tools is considered very critical across all regions. The size of components is somewhat critical across all three areas. Speed/system performance is considered most critical in the Rest of Asia/Pacific, more than in Taiwan or China. Technical documentation is considered very critical in Taiwan and the Rest of Asia/Pacific but less critical in China. Technical support is considered very critical in Taiwan. Seventy-three percent of Taiwanese designers indicated that it is very critical, while it is considered less critical in China and the Rest of Asia/Pacific. A majority of the respondents in all three areas consider total system development cost to be very critical but more so in Taiwan than the other regions. 13 Hardware Components Purchase and Upgrade Decisions Respondents were asked about their plans to purchase and upgrade different hardware components and hardware systems for the next project. These items are listed below: Bridge integrated circuits (ICs) Communication ICs Compact peripheral component interconnect (PCI) boards CPU/DSP hybrid chips Data acquisition boards DSPs Dynamic RAM (DRAM) DSP boards Embedded PCs Erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM)/electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) Flash cards Flash memory Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) IBM/compatible PCs Intellectual property LCDs Microprocessor controller unit peripheral chips 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

14 Hardware Decisions for Embedded Systems Design in Asia/Pacific Media processors 8-bit MCU/MPU 16-bit 32-bit 64-bit MCU/MPU Networking processors Programmable logic devices (PLDs)/complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs) Single-board computers Static RAM (SRAM) Virtual machine environment (VME) boards Workstations Other digital ICs Other analog components/ics Other mixed-signal ICs Figure 13 shows the percentage of respondents that plan to upgrade or purchase these components for their next embedded project. 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

15 Figure 13 Plans to Purchase/Upgrade Hardware Components Bridge ICs Communication ICs cpci Boards CPU/DSP Hybrid Chips Data Acquisition Boards DSPs DRAM DSP Boards Embedded PCs EPROM/EEPROM Flash Cards Flash Memory FPGAs IBM/Compatible PCs Intellectual Property LCDs Microprocessor Controller Unit Peripheral Chips Media Processors 8-bit 16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Networking Processors PLDs/CPLDs Single-Board Computers SRAM VME Boards Workstations Other Digital ICs Other Analog Components/ICs Other Mixed-Signal ICs None Percent 113414-00-13 Across the three regions, 48.2 percent of respondents are planning to purchase or upgrade LCDs. Forty-five percent are planning to purchase or upgrade to 32-bit microprocessors and microcontrollers. Of the respondents, 39.8 percent indicate they will be purchasing CPU/DSP hybrid chips (see Figure 14). By regional breakdowns, LCDs are most likely to be purchased or upgraded for the next embedded project in China, 32-bit MPUs/MCUs in Taiwan and flash memory in the Rest of Asia/Pacific. Compact PCI boards and VME boards seem less likely to be purchased or upgraded for the next project. 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

16 Hardware Decisions for Embedded Systems Design in Asia/Pacific Figure 14 Hardware Component Selection by Region Bridge ICs Communication ICs cpci Boards CPU/DSP Hybrid Chips Data Acquisition Boards China Taiwan Rest of Asia/Pacific DSPs DRAM DSP Boards Embedded PCs EPROM/EEPROM Flash Cards Flash Memory FPGAs IBM/Compatible PCs Intellectual Property LCDs Microprocessor Controller Unit Peripheral Chips Media Processors 8-bit 16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Networking Processors PLDs/CPLDs Single-Board Computers SRAM VME Boards Workstations Other Digital ICs Other Analog Components/ICs Other Mixed-Signal ICs None Percent 113414-00-14 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

17 Key Issue What is the competitive landscape for this market and how is it going to change? 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 11 March 2003

18 Hardware Decisions for Embedded Systems Design in Asia/Pacific This document has been published to the following Marketplace codes: SOFT-WW-DP-0130 SEMC-WW-DP-0249 For More Information... In North America and Latin America: +1-203-316-1111 In Europe, the Middle East and Africa: +44-1784-268819 In Asia/Pacifc/Pacific: +61-7-3405-2582 In Japan: +81-3-3481-3670 Worldwide via gartner.com: www.gartner.com Entire contents 2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. 113414