Hybrid Semiconductor Processors Generate A Whopping $55.5 Billion in 2011
A new report by IMS Research, recently acquired by IHS Inc., says that half of the $111 billion processor market in 2011 was generated by hybrid processors that included two or more different types of processor cores
Most notable of these is the 2010 introduction of the combined central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) by both Intel and AMD. This hybridisation has eliminated the market for the integrated graphics chipset, but the GPU market is expected to continue thriving at estimated revenue CAGR of 4.1 percent from 2011 through 2016.
This hybridisation appears to be a critical step in upping the competitive edge in computers but is also a step for these vendors into smartphones, tablets and other high performance embedded devices. Hybrid applications processor growth in smartphones and tablets is predicted to be over 10 percent CAGR from 2011 14 percent in 2016.
"Through the last decade the mobile and media consumption device markets have been pivotal for this hybridisation trend; Apple, Broadcom, Marvell, MediaTek, NVidia, Qualcomm, Samsung, St Ericsson, Texas Instruments and many other processor vendors have been offering heterogeneous application-specific processors with a microprocessor core integrating a GPU to add value within extremely confined parameters of space, power and cost," notes Tom Hackenberg, semiconductors research manager and author of the Comprehensive Processor Report.
Now that smartphone sales exceed computers, and tablets explode onto the market, these hybridised application specific mobile processors represent the next largest class of processor by revenue.
Hackenberg continues, "With double digit revenue growth in these markets, it's not surprising to see major processor vendors such as AMD and Intel adopting this strategy to compete for computer market share and expending increasing research and development on embedded solutions. This hybridisation is getting even more competitive with an Intel Atom-based smartphone on the market this month demonstrating that Intel is serious about entering the mobile device market by combining an x86 microprocessor, graphics licensed from NVidia and configurable security logic as a hybrid processor triple play to capture share."
As economic and physical barriers to shrinking geometries raise concerns of the imminent demise of Moore's Law, semiconductor providers are turning to hybrid processors as just one of many complementary technologies for increasing system level performance and adding processor value. IMS Research has identified no less than 20 processor vendors that now provide dozens of heterogeneous processing solutions on a single chip.
Some of these converging processors have been evolving over time such as the digital signal controller, a convergence of DSPs and MCUs with the real-time processing performance of a DSP and an expanded instruction set for controller applications. In configurable processors, historically those found in FPGAs, processor vendors such as Xilinx, Altera, Microsemi and Cypress Semiconductor are actively targeting SoC ecosystems with an embedded processor core identical to and applications processor or microcontroller but enhanced with configurable logic.
"This trend is growing and spreading. Other processor vendors are now including application specific configurable logic," Hackenberg adds. "Intel's Z2460 mobile processor includes a configurable security engine; Analog Devices' BF60x DSP targets the anticipated high-growth market of embedded vision with a signal processing SoC that includes configurable logic specifically accelerating vision applications acceleration."
Computers and media consumption devices dominate revenues in the processor market easily allowing hybrid processors to capture over half the revenues in 2011, but the trend does not stop there. "If processor suppliers are going to continue meeting performance expectations set by Moore's Law, clearly this is a necessary trend. Future processors may be less marketable by their top-end frequency and more by their application specific cores," says Hackenberg.
