MCU:逐渐繁荣的高端Cortex-M市场

MCUs: High-end devices flourish

It is the balance between the traditional technologies and the newer kid on the block - ARM - that is providing an area of interest.

在MCU市场，传统的单片机技术和新加入者-ARM的对峙，正在催生一个让众多厂商向往的领域。

Colin Holland, Editor, EE Times' MCU Designline -- EDN, December 12, 2011

 

It is difficult not to regard the recent history of microcontrollers (MCUs) as BC and AC—before and after Cortex! It is less than seven years since the ARM technology turned its focus directly on the MCU sector and Austin-based Luminary Micro was formed, becoming the first licensee. There are now 123 licensees of the Cortex-M with 5 new companies signing up in the last quarter and another nine existing customers extending their deals. Earlier in the year ARM estimated that its royalty opportunity for 2015 was 19 billion units a year while last year it reported 500 million devices were based on its technology, which gave it a 10% market share.

MCU的历史很难说清楚是可以追朔至Cortex之前还是之后。在不到7年的时间里，ARM从始建于奥斯汀的Luminary开始发力MCU市场。ARM的Cortex-M系列产品线的授权已经达到123个。这个123个授权中，有5个新公司是在过去一个季度签约的，还有9个是ARM已有的客户在原有产品线基础上拓展了其他产品线。ARM在年初曾经预测，自己在2015年仅版税收入就可以达到190亿个，而去年这个数字还是5亿，这让ARM Cortex-M内核的MCU在整个市场中的市占率达10%。

Market researchers Databeans supported this revolution saying that shipments of ARM processor-based microcontrollers grew at a record pace of over 100% during 2010, compared to about 37% growth for the overall microcontroller market. Most of this growth was attributed to an increase in sales of its Cortex-M family chips, which now comprise about 10% of total ARM shipments.

市场调研机构称，基于ARM Cortex-M内核的MCU在2010年创纪录地实现了100%的出货量增长。而整个MCU市场才增长了37%。MCU市场的增长也几乎是来自于ARM Cortex-M系列产品的增长。在ARM所有的芯片出货量中，Cortex-M为ARM贡献了10%的出货量。

There are very few of the major microcontroller suppliers who are holing out. Of the top nine in Gartner Inc.'s sales ranking for 2010 only two are not in the ARM club. The market leader, Renesas Electronics, formed in April 2010 from the merger of Renesas Technology and NEC Electronics (ranked number one and two in 2009), is one which, while having an ARM license for SoCs, has not used the technology in its MCUs. Number five Microchip retains its independence with its 32-bit MCUs based on the MIPS M4K Core.

在主要的MCU厂商中几乎都有使用ARM 的Cortex-M内核的产品线。根据Gartner的销售排名，在2010年的排名中，前9名中只有两家没有使用ARM内核。一个是老大瑞萨，在2010年4月由瑞萨和NEC两家合并而来。虽然瑞萨已经获得了ARM的Cortex-M系列产品授权，但是并没有将他们用在自己的MCU中。排名第5的Microchip使用了MIPS的32位M4K内核。

Freescale and Fujitsu were more recent converts to the adoption of Cortex for MCUs when they respectively added the Kinetis and FM3 ranges last year.

飞思卡尔和富士通是新近才开始生产Cortex系列MCU，他们分别在2010年增加了kinetis和FM3产品线。

What is perhaps obvious is the top nine sellers are there because they also supply 8-bit and/or 16-bit devices as well as the 32-bit MCUs. It is the balance between the traditional technologies and the newer kid on the block that is providing an area of interest. The smaller suppliers who have put many of their eggs into the 32-bit basket are stressing how easy it is to switch designs to high-end technology while long-term 4-, 8-, and 16-bit suppliers are saying there could be over the top for many low-end designs.

之所以能进入前9的厂商很明显是现因为他们同时也供应8位或者16位MCU甚至是32位MCU。在MCU市场，随着传统的单片机技术和新加入者-ARM的对峙，正在催生一个有意思的领域。在MCU产品线上弱一些的厂商开始将他们的赌注都压在32位上，当长期在8位，16位低端市场领先的厂商始终强调他们产品能够覆盖几乎所有的低端设计时，他们则强调如何很轻松地在设计中从低端技术切换到高端技术。

Many MCU manufacturers offer mainly proprietary 8- and 16- bit architectures. These devices are often differentiated through their peripheral sets but the rate of development has slowed for low-end devices.

许多MCU厂商主要供应自己的8位和16位产品。这些产品通常是外设不同，但是这就使低端开发的速度变慢了。

So what is driving the interest in MCUs and in particular the high-end devices? Electronics are proliferating in safety-critical applications and designers need simplified system certification and development. Sectors being looked at include industrial, medical, automotive, mil/aero and solar energy. The automotive industry, for example, is under pressure to provide new and improved vehicle safety systems, from basic airbag-deployment systems to complex advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) with accident prediction and avoidance capabilities.

那么什么才是驱动高端MCU应用的特殊需求呢？电子技术在安全关键的应用中正在增加，因为在这些领域工程师需要简化系统验证和开发。这些领域包括，工业，医疗，汽车，航空航天以及新能源等。拿汽车行业来说，提供新的或者改善安全系统是对于开发者来说通常是很非常有压力的。从基础的安全秦安系统到复杂高级的，能够帮助司机进行事故预测和躲避的驾驶辅助系统。

Texas Instruments recently grouped some existing devices with 34 new products into the Hercules safety MCU platform aimed at transportation, industrial and medical. The TMS570 (

TMS570 datasheet

) and RM4x  dual-core Cortex-based devices look to address random and systematic failures with three existing devices and six more sampling. In development are devices with more memory options and additional peripheries.

德州仪器最近将一些已有的产品和34个新产品打包放进了自己的Hercules safety MCU开发平台，目标直指交通运输，工业以及医疗等行业。TMS570和双核Cortex的RM4x的定位就是如此。在开中，设备需要具有更多的存储和其他外设。

 

Freescale has introduced a similar program called SafeAssure, which provides solutions aimed at reducing the time required to develop safety systems that comply with the upcoming International Standards Organization (ISO) 26262 and existing International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61508 standards. They are suggesting MPC56xx (

MPC56xx datasheet

) MCUs for automotive and PXSxx for industrial designs including safety shutdown systems, solar inverters, motor drives, factory automation, aerospace and robotics.

飞思卡尔也发布了一个相似的计划叫SafeAssure。这个计划提供了一个可以减少开发安全系统时间的解决方案。以顺应即将到来的ISO 26262和已经在实施的IEC61508标准。飞思卡尔推荐将MPC56xx用于汽车行业，而PXSxx系列产品则面向工业领域涉及。包括安全关闭系统，太阳能逆变器，电机驱动，工厂自动化，航空以及机器人等领域。

Not to be left out, Renesas Electronics America Inc. has recently been showcasing its MCU-based solutions optimized for portable healthcare applications such as devices for blood pressure, blood glucose and heart rate monitoring. In these application areas organizations such as the Continua Health Alliance and ANT+ Alliance as well as Wi-Fi, USB and Ethernet protocols are increasing in importance.

不容忽视的瑞萨最近也展示了他基于MCU的便携式医疗监护应用比如血压计，血糖仪，心率监测等。在这些应用领域组建了一些联盟，比如康体佳健康联盟和ANT+联盟，因为Wi-Fi，USB以及以太网协议已经越来越重要了。

Many other of the suppliers are targeting the same markets trying to get the optimum balance between the amount of on-chip memory and peripherals. What is equally important and is increasing in focus is the provision for on-chip launch of tools to support designs. There is an accelerating trend to enable design using newly announced devices even before samples are delivered. This trend encompasses both tools from the semiconductor manufacturers as well as third-party suppliers with IAR, Green Hills, Keil, Segger or Lauterbach regularly lined up to provide support at launch.

很多其他的厂商也在针对同样的市场，努力让自己芯片在存储和外设之间寻求最佳的平衡。同样重要的还有工具。因为针对芯片的开发工具对于工程设计人员会越来越重要。有一个趋势正在加速——新发布的产品能够兼容已有的设计，甚至是尚未发布的产品要越来越多考虑如何兼容已有的设计。这个趋势包含的不仅仅是半导体厂商的开发工具，还有第三方开发工具，比如IAR，Green Hills，Keil，Segger或者Lauterbach等。

Early RTOS support is following a similar trend with Micrium, Express Logic and CMX Systems among those often quoted as providing ports for devices as they come off the drawing board. FreeRTOS is also one of the first to be ported to new devices but seems to be mainly used for early development and there is little evidence that it is being migrated to production designs

较早支持的已有的RTOS也是一个类似的趋势。比如要支持Micrium，ExpressLogic以及CMX Systems。

 

The low-end development boards are becoming cheaper and easier to use out of the box while more expensive variants provide complete systems including multiple I/Os, networking and displays, as well as tools and other software. The MCU manufacturers almost always produce their own boards but there is an increasing move to work with third parties with open-source prototyping platforms like Arduino, the PandaBoard, and Beagle Board.

低端开发板会越来越便宜，越来越容易使用。全套的解决方案变地越来越重要。MCU厂商总是生产他们自己的板子，但是这个市场越来越多向第三方倾斜，厂商的板子要越来越多地考虑兼容像Arduino，PandaBoard，以及Beagle Board这样的第三方开源原型设计平台。

玉非璞  2011.12.24译自EDN。

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