32-bit MCUs shipments forecast to grow at a rate of 10%

Revenues for 32-bit MCUs are forecast to total more than $13.5bn in 2020, with automotive, industrial and the digital home set to be the leading revenue sectors. The pervasion of wireless connectivity into factories, offices and the home, otherwise known as the IoT, is forecast to propel the 32-bit MCU market into new territories.

Semicast judges Renesas to have been the leading supplier of 32-bit MCUs in 2014, ahead of Freescale, but a notable absentee from the 32-bit MCUs market is Intel. While Intel was the leading supplier of embedded MPUs in 2014, it is yet to establish a presence in 32-bit MCUs. Intel has two ways to achieve this, either to purchase an existing supplier of ARM Cortex-M based MCUs, or to develop a range of x86-based MCUs.

Colin Barnden, Principal Analyst at Semicast Research and study author, commented: “I had expected Intel to buy Freescale, since this would have taken it into the 32-bit MCU market, provided a leading position in automotive MCUs and expanded its portfolio of communications processors. However as NXP has purchased Freescale, I instead expect Intel to continue what it started with Atom and Quark and to use its Pentium cores to develop a range of x86-based MCUs. If Intel is serious about IoT, it has to establish a presence somewhere in the one-to-five dollar 32-bit MCU segment, and soon.”