VDC Research: Embedded Microprocessor, Board & Systems Market Blog

Will Ultra-low-power Finally Crush the 8-bit MCU?

A new class of MCU is on the rise, which is designated by many vendors as the ultra-low-power class. Based on recent product announcements by TI, NXP, STMicroelectronics and others, the ultra-low-power class is quickly ramping up. These new MCUs represent an opportunity for 16-bit and 32-bit performance, but more within the power envelopes and price points of 8-bit MCUs. VDC believes this will hasten the departure of 8-bit architectures as well lead to new MCU device opportunities.

Ultra-low-power is quite relevant for applications such as utility metering, portable instrumentation, intelligent sensing, consumer electronics, medical devices, handheld scanners, etc. The key requirements for many of these applications is extending battery life, reducing cost, and offering capabilities for extended performance. Central to enabling these requirements is the IP processor architecture, and cores offered by ARM such as the Cortex-M0+ are making this possible.

The ARM Cortex-M0 represented ARM’s initial foray into the low-power, low footprint space, but now they have extended it further with the M0+. With a compressed pipeline and optimized memory access, the M0+ reduces energy consumption even further than its M0 brethren. At the same time, the M0+ maintains backward compatibility with the M0 architecture and upward compatibility with the Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M4. VDC believes the adoption of lower power architectures like the ARM Cortex-M0+ will continue to displace 8-bit architectures and transition systems to higher performance capabilities.

The topic of ultra-low-power will be covered in VDC’s upcoming Track 2, Volume 1: Microcontrollers study, which is due to publish within the next two weeks.

Curtiss-Wright Controls Sharpens Focus

Curtiss-Wright Controls, parent company of Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing (CWCEC), announced on January 9 the formation of a new business unit, Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions (CWCDS). The new unit will incorporate both CWCEC and the firm’s former Electronic Systems unit. Ref. http://www.cwcdefense.com/media-center/press-release/50.htm

The ultimate parent company, Curtiss-Wright Corporation, was formed in 1929 through the union of fifteen companies affiliated with aviation pioneers Glenn Curtiss and Wilbur and Orville Wright. Today the firm, with annual sales exceeding US$ 2 billion, operates in three primary market segments: Flow Control, Motion Control and Metal Treatment. Defense-related products and services comprised approximately 40% of overall income, covered under the Motion Control segment.

Curtiss-Wright Controls, headquartered in Charlotte, NC, is the Motion Control segment of the overall company. Both the former Embedded Computing and Electronic Systems units were part of this group.

Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing (CWCEC) was formed in 2002 through the acquisition of certain assets of Lau Defense Systems. Over the next several years, CWCEC grew to be a powerhouse in the military/aerospace segment of embedded computing, particularly on the merchant boards side. Growth was both organic and via acquisition. Succeeding acquisitions included Collins Technologies, Peritek, Systran, Novatronics, Dy 4, Prima Graphics, Synergy Microsystems, Indal Technologies, Pentland and Vmetro asa.

Military, Aerospace and Defense has, historically, been not only a primary market for CWCEC but also one of the fastest growing and most stable segments for merchant computer boards, in particular. In 2010, this market segment accounted for US$ 694 Million in shipments; this is projected to increase to US$ 912 Million in 2013. CWCEC was the number one supplier of boards to this market segment, with a market share of substantially greater than 17%. GE Intelligent Platforms was number two, with a market share slightly above 14%.

However, the projected 131% 2010-2013 increase in Mil Aero board shipments is actually less than the projected shipment growth for boards in general – 153%. Even this may prove to be optimistic, if certain massive cuts proposed for the military budget are implemented. Therefore, suppliers to this segment should be pursuing aggressive marketing and customer service policies in order to grow not only market share but actual shipments as well.

The establishment of the new Defense Solutions business unit within Curtiss-Wright Controls will not only address these issues, but will also produce a larger, yet more nimble, operation. It will also provide a sharper focus to Curtiss-Wright’s embedded efforts, targeting bread-and-butter elements of the business and reducing distractions from less critical aspects of the business.

Extracting Elusive Value from the Embedded Cloud

In the past few months as work progressed on the VDC Embedded Cloud report, I posted a few blogs on classic examples of M2M connectivity and the values that can be obtained by many stakeholders. Even so, I believe many M2M cases do not fully extract all of the value that can be obtained by that connectivity and, in particular, the data that is collected, processed, and stored in the cloud. In this blog, I thought I would explore in more detail two examples of M2M connectivity to look for that elusive added value.

M2M Example 1: Semiconductor Tester - The latest versions of Advanced Mixed Signal/System on Chip testers have to perform faster than the chips they are testing and are likely using liquid cooling systems. The timing of the digital channels have to be perfect and, at the same time, precise analog sourcing and capture channels are needed for the many analog functions found on the system on chip devices they are testing. These testers are typically on isolated networks as device speeds, capabilities, and product yields are highly confidential particularly during product development. These testers are typically used 24 x 7 and downtime is particularly expensive.

If that semiconductor tester could be connected to the suppliers cloud service, significant value can be seen by all participants especially the owner. The cooling system would be a prime example. In many cases these are closed loop systems and a low level of flow or coolant and/or a high temperature reading can shut the system down automatically. If these sensors could be polled and the data stored and processed, the system owner or supplier could be alerted to possible problems before they cause a shutdown. Small coolant leaks could be detected and mitigated before they cause issues. If the data were made available to coolant suppliers, they could proactively deliver new stock on a just-in-time basis.

Semiconductor testers can generate a lot of data in the process of calibrating and testing themselves. If that self-test and/or calibration data were moved to the cloud it could provide more value by using processes that compare past results with current ones. Even tests that pass in both cases can be statistically evaluated to look for drifting toward limits. In this way, a digital or analog channel boards could be removed before they failed in the middle of a production run.

Now, we will take it up one more notch. If the self-test data from all of the tester supplier’s customers were aggregated in the cloud they could provide even more value particularly in cases where failures occur. By comparing the data from a current failure with those that happened in the past, it is likely that a root cause is already known and therefore can be quickly applied by the service personnel.

If you think that this is all the value that can be extracted from this case of M2M, you would be mistaken. If the semiconductor tester could sense that another machine in the test cell was down, it could run its own self-test programs to take advantage of the lull in the action. If a time based calibration was needed in the near future, it could pull that in as well. In the failure cases noted above, the cloud based data could be used in a Failure Reporting and Corrective Actions System (FRACAS) which might identify problems with a particular component or batch of components. This type of data could be filtered and shared and the benefits would be seen by multiple OEMs as well as component suppliers.

M2M Example 2: Wind Turbine - In some cases, wind turbines are individual units and, in other cases, they are part of a large array of units. This can represent a very fragmented deployment as large arrays are likely in remote areas and single units are very spread out in more populated areas. This makes the service model a lot more complicated both in regards to equipment and personnel. From a personnel perspective, you need expertise in electrical, mechanical, and aeronautical systems. The fact that they are so large and high also requires crane and rigging and heavy construction expertise as well.  If the array is located offshore, that is another area of expertise that might be needed. From what I know, wind turbines don’t fail that often but, when they do, the convergence of material and expertise needed to fix them can be costly with respect to downtime and expenses.

M2M connectivity could benefit wind turbine installations by providing them with advance knowledge of wind gusts and anomalies for which they could adjust in advance. There are lots of sources for this kind of data from satellites, radar, and sensors located in many places. Aggregated and processed in the cloud, they could provide actionable intelligence for a turbine operator. On a similar note, this type of aggregated data is of high value to grid operators as they need to level out the supply of wind-generated electricity with the demand of the customers.

As in the semiconductor tester, I believe there are several ways the service model I discussed could be made less expensive. A wind turbine is likely chock full of sensors that detect motion, position, and most importantly strain on components. The rotating blades are very heavy but need to be balanced and oriented precisely. If the data from the turbines are moved to the cloud, degradation of components could be detected before outright failure.

Now, we look to a higher derivative value of the aggregated wind turbine data. If a wind turbine blade begins to have a problem and the sensors detect it, the owner has a tough choice to make because of the logistics and expenses that could be involved in the repair process. If the owner, crane company, and/or repair crew, knew there were other wind turbines in that area that also had problems, costs could be shared. 

In the final embedded cloud M2M value derivative, the supplier of the wind turbine blades could use the aggregated data from all of the deployed turbines to learn more about strains and product failures to improve designs and production processes. If needed, they could begin to produce a replacement part on proactive just-in-time basis rather than having to maintain a significant inventory.

Summary: In both the tester and turbine cases we see where the primary stakeholders such as the equipment owner and the supplier that made it have tangible benefits from the M2M cloud connectivity. The interesting but sometimes less obvious benefits come from other data sources and where the equipment data can be used to provide benefits to other stakeholders. In each market, these secondary and somewhat elusive opportunities are there for the taking but only to those who look for them.

Four Big Takeaways from the Design West / ESC Show

In this last ESC show related blog, I will summarize several of the discoveries and themes we saw for embedded hardware products. We had lots of great conversations and observed many product demonstrations and presentations. These four takeaways were some of the most interesting.

Disposable Products: Embedded device manufacturers are looking to provide units that minimize power use when operating and virtually eliminate any use when idle. What is driving this is the idea of products like smoke and/or CO detectors lasting for 10 years or more and then being disposable. This allows the units to use different power sources while eliminating battery clips, and simplifying enclosure designs.  If you take it a next step, you could see that some municipalities could ensure that every residence and business would have smoke/CO detector units installed and operational. This would save lives and money.

Microcontrollers (MCU) and Digital Signal Processors (DSP): Embedded computing has gotten a lot more complicated and one place that is representative of this trend is automotive airbag systems. In prior generation designs it was relatively simple in that a MEMs device or some type of impact sensor was connected to an MCU that would in turn trigger the airbag if a well defined set of go/no-go conditions were met. There were several problems that now make this architecture less feasible. Airbags are expensive to replace and, in some cases present dangers of their own. Therefore, you want to be a little more selective about when you want to deploy them. Cars now have multiple airbags and you only want to deploy some of them depending on conditions that might not be a simple MCU driven process. In summary, the airbag trigger process involves more sensors to detect passenger configurations and weights as well as impact sites, directions, magnitudes and whether the vehicle is rolling over. This is why VDC believes that the demand for DSPs in the automotive vertical market will be growing significantly.

Embedded Device Pin counts and Features: During the ESC show we spoke with many embedded controller and processor suppliers and were impressed with the amount of features and capabilities that are increasingly being integrated into these products. By doing so, in many cases it reduces the need for pins that would be needed to connect the device to other devices in a customer’s product. To the embedded device manufacturer this has many possible benefits as it frees up the pins for other functions or eliminates them completely.  Another tangible benefit would be reduced cost of test as the reduced pin count might enable more parallel testing. The design engineers at the customer have to be delighted as they have fewer worries about integrating peripherals and supporting devices and now, less demand for space inside the products they are designing. This is truly a win-win proposition.

Embedded Cloud / Microstrain: In their booth, the CEO Steve Arms was demonstrating their Sensor Cloud service. The demonstration was showing real time and archived data collected wirelessly from an array of sensors at a Vermont winery. This is a classic embedded cloud business model of a company setting up cloud services for customers. Agriculture is always a complicated business and the introduction of this type of service should help lower costs to farmers. Now, imagine a second derivative of the cloud data being aggregated and sold to the financial industry to support decisions about crop futures.

In a blog later this week, I will give some thoughts on the embedded cloud business model and the layers of value that can be extracted.

Design West / ESC Show Highlights - Part 2

In this blog I will continue to explore some of the VDC Embedded Hardware team experience at the Design West ESC show. We saw a lot of great product demonstrations along with some excellent detailed briefings and meetings so it’s difficult to boil it all down to a reasonable size blog but here we go:

AMD: We saw a number of embedded computer products from multiple manufactures that featured AMD processors. Many of these would be great for scalable edge node applications. Heard a bit more about the latest Opteron 3200 series of processors which will likely find many cloud based applications. While at AMD we visited partner Xi3 they have some really nifty looking cube type computers that can be deployed in array like structures. The concept they were showing was a datacenter on wheels.

Atmel: Was showing some new products that seemed really great for embedded M2M type connectivity but, according to the press material I received, the details are embargoed for another week or two.

Digi-International: Digi was a company we covered in the Migrating to the Embedded Cloud report that published this week so we really wanted to stop by and see if there was anything new going on.  What we saw didn’t disappoint as there was a lot of evidence about the partnerships we talk about in the report. Digi and Wind River were announcing a collaboration to deliver M2M wireless connectivity solutions using Intel processors. This is on the heels of a similar partnership that Digi has with Freescale. We saw that Digi was using another company’s embedded computer hardware products as part of the cloud connectivity demonstration but, as that partnership is not announced; I can’t write more about that now.

Integrated Device Technology (IDT): In this booth there was a very impressive demonstration of  serial RapidIO technology being deployed in a number of different companies’ products. This is very important in cellular 3G and 4G deployments. Despite being handled by different protocols, hardware and connection methods the data travelled end-to-end efficiently and, most importantly without being corrupted.

Imagination Technologies:  We saw some really great examples of their IP used in mobile devices and applications. As people become more ingrained with mobile devices, high resolution videos, and larger screen sizes, it takes some pretty complex systems on chip to make it work. The difficult thing is getting the needed performance while not sucking the mobile equipments battery dry.

Inside Secure: As the market for M2M is growing there needs to be ways to ensure of the identity of the machines and people being connected. Inside Secure gave us a briefing on several of their security technologies that can be embedded into products to address these issues.

Lantronix: As an OEM is making design decisions on new products or looking to update older ones adding wired and/or wireless connectivity can be a problem. Lantronix briefed us on several of their products where the connective capability can be added to new designs or even old ones on an as needed basis. Almost as a proof of concept, Lantronix produced xPrintServer using technology they usually sell to OEMs to allow Apple devices to directly connect to existing legacy printers using a downloadable app.

Microchip: The VDC Embedded SW and HW teams had several meetings with Microchip and we were particularly happy to have an opportunity for a great discussion their President and CEO Steve Sanghi. As this blog looks to be running a little long, I will give the special focus to topics we covered with Mr. Sanghi in a blog next week. The hardware team learned a lot about some of the new Microchip MCUs that are adding analog circuitry such as ADCs, DACs, Op-Amps, and Comparators.  This puts more functionality into a single package while, at the same time often reduces device pin count.

Micron: I saw a detailed briefing on the latest about the Micron memory cube product. The through hole vias on the semiconductor dies that make this design possible are interesting in themselves.

National Instruments: This was another company that is covered in the Embedded Cloud report and, we saw that the Compact Rio product has some new, even more compact, product lines extensions. In the booth there was also a mock-up of a Siemens smart grid transmission line breaker module. The N/I Compact Rio was part of the design in that it could capture and transmit events that happened on the transmission lines. One of the neat things is Siemens/NI project is that the breaker can be reset remotely.

Netronome: If you ever want to see a place where powerful embedded processors are used in large quantities in high volume applications, a network flow processor is a good place to look. These impressive units we saw inspect packets and move internet traffic at extremely high rates.

Power.org: An interesting talk with one of the Directors at the IBM booth to learn more about this organization that unifies standards among its members around the Power Architecture technology with a goal of making sure that processors and communications products work efficiently as the scale of connectivity grow ever increasingly higher.

Silex: We saw some product briefings on their connectivity modules. With respect to M2M connectivity this is pretty interesting if for example you are a product designer supporting a legacy product that you want to add M2M services to or, in other cases, you are worried that a particular standard fall out of favor, and you want the product you are designing to be future proof.

SuperMicro: They have a very large line of products and the MicroCloud product was particularly interesting to us because of the embedded cloud report where we had profiled SuperMicro.  The MicroCloud product impressed us with its ability to scale up as a cloud service and/or the amount of machines being supported in an edge node application grows.

Texas Instruments: TI had a lot to show us with all types of embedded hardware products adding GPS and motion sensing as well as Wi-Fi and other connectivity. Anyone that has taken a portable device with GPS applications into a building, large city, or tunnel will realize that these types of products have a waiting market.  We also got briefings on some new process intensive DSP products that are becoming increasingly important to many markets. This is one of the topics I will expand on in the next installment of this blog series.

Next week, I’ll give a few last high level takeaways about things we saw and discussed at the show.

Design West / ESC Show 2012 Highlights - Part 1 The Embeddy

VDC attended the 2012 DESIGN West/Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose from March 27^th through March 30^th and met with more than 30 companies to discuss product announcements and a variety of industry trends impacting the embedded hardware market today.

I wanted to take a few minutes to thank the many outstanding people at the show that provided briefings to the VDC Embedded Hardware team. With our Migrating to the Embedded Cloud report in production, key trend elements we were especially attentive to included M2M connectivity of embedded computing products with cloud based services and infrastructure.

As the first part of this blog, I thought I would give some detail on the Embeddy winner. Then, in a follow up blog that will post next week I will highlight many other companies we met with and some of the new products and trends we heard about.

And now, without further ado, the winner of the VDC Hardware Embeddy award for the 2012 Design West / ESC show was Freescale for their Vybrid family of embedded controller solutions.

There were several things that impressed me about the Vybrid line. First of all there are several different combinations of features and performance that can be selected. This should make them very flexible and cost effective.

The second thing I noted was the heterogeneous architecture for the dual processors inside the device. One processor core was more powerful for the functions that needed it and the other processor core was more economical for less demanding functions. I would think that would make it an good fit in a world that is now demanding more embedded processing power while, at the same time looking for power economy as well.

Freescale looks to be providing product samples later this year and indicates that they will be ramping up production of them in 2013. It will be interesting to see how the market responds.