Microcontrollers (MCUs) have been smooth in the past few years. The 32-bit MCUs have increased by more than 15% in the world, and the 32-bit MCUs in the ARM architecture have increased by 30%. In the past two years, shipments of 32-bit MCUs have doubled, and the previous rule was usually doubled in five years. In 2014, the growth of MCUs worldwide was mainly due to the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart Internet. As an important contributor to the MCU, 2014 was a record year for Freescale.
Recently, Geoff Lees, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Microcontroller Division of Freescale, and Mr. Jin Yujie, Director of P&L Marketing, Freescale Microcontroller Division, shared the results and future plans of Freescale in Beijing.
Run it! Freescale MCU
Geoff said: "Freescale's MCU business has grown significantly in 2014. It ranks first in the world in e-book applications, second in the world in general-purpose MCUs, and second in the field of in-vehicle infotainment processors. The industrial-application-driven ARM core-based Kinetis MCU business is growing rapidly, doubling more in 2014; the i.MX business driven by automotive infotainment and industry has grown by more than 25%. In the past two years, Freescale MCU's sales revenue has increased by more than 40%, and our full line of products has continued to gain market share in many markets. In 2012, our sales revenue was 707 million US dollars, and 2013 sales revenue was 826 million US dollars, and this year's The first three quarters were our record quarter, with sales reaching $251 million. These are just the turnover of the industrial, general-purpose MCU market (such as the i.MX application processor), but not the automotive MCU business."
About two months ago, the CEO of a well-known microcontroller manufacturer that started with "M" published a statement about the semiconductor industry. A stone has stirred up a thousand waves, and there are voices of approval and opposition. Geoff said: "In recent months we have heard a voice in the market, saying that the semiconductor industry will decline, but from our information and The data from our distributors shows that the market is still growing. Although China's 4G investment will slow down, the global semiconductor market will continue to grow and is expected to reach $350 billion in 2015, which of course requires the price of storage. â€
The leader of ARM microcontrollers
Geoff talked about the success of Kinetis: "At present, only four of the world's leading MCU suppliers dominate the market, and the top two MCU vendors are growing faster than other vendors. First, based on ARM architecture. Kinetis, the second is STM32, the best of both, has doubled in the past year. We believe Kinetis will continue to grow strongly in the future. In the Kinetis series, we currently have more than 1000 products. It is believed that the ARM ecosystem will enable us to better serve our customers, simplify their designs, and enable them to focus more on applications, software and services."
Geoff added: "In recent years, the growth rate of 32-bit MCUs has far exceeded that of 8-bit and 16-bit MCUs. The market for the main applications of the past 8 MCUs has not disappeared, but has been replaced. Although the global 8-bit MCU market has already There are some exceptions, but there are still some slow growth in China."
Three elements for the future of the network
Geoff said: "We have noticed that we now emphasize the Internet of Tomorrow. We are not renaming the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is mainly about device connectivity, and Freescale's technology coverage is broader. Scope. I don’t know if everyone knows that half of the world’s network connections and bandwidth are supported by Freescale’s network devices. We believe that we have unique advantages to work with infrastructure companies, software companies, and systems companies to develop future-oriented Web applications. Freescale believes that security, scalability and energy efficiency are the three elements driving future IoT development."
Security: The security of the Internet of Things is crucial in the future. No one wants to cause trouble or even threats after using a convenient networked device. Therefore, many terminal devices continue to be secure from the high end to the edge node. Geoff talks about Freescale's emphasis on security and its initiatives: "Our security comes from physical security (hardware security) and software security (user authentication, identity management, secure network access, etc.). We've teamed up with a number of partners to form alliances that have the mission of turning MCU applications that weren't connected to each other into a powerful, systematic network connection."
Software security is not strange to us, what is hardware security? For example, a hacker will attempt to change the system voltage, temperature or operating frequency, resulting in equipment failure. Freescale's security protection can protect physical characteristics including voltage, frequency and temperature, and the voltage is different and the protection method is different. These protection methods have been highly recognized in the industry and passed PCA 4.0 certification. This is also the result of the development of Freescale's specially established security technology center. Geoff said that the center will continue to develop physical and network and software security technologies to avoid attacks.
Scalability: Another driving force for the future of IoT is scalability, not just scalability on MCU devices. Freescale considers the needs of customers and markets, considering the scalability of the entire ecosystem and community. For example: from smart cars to smart highways; smart homes to smart cities; smart wearables to smart health. Geoff stressed: "Freescale's products cover not only smart devices, but the entire system and community that has been expanded. For IoT applications, services are also critical, and we focus not only on a single product but on systematization. Solutions and services.†When it comes to services, future hardware devices may be delivered at a cost price, and vendors expect to pay for consumers through the services provided by hardware devices. Now we have seen some prototypes of this business model.
One device can be used by a larger ecosystem, and devices need to be networked, which is where Freescale's new devices will evolve. For example, adding low-power Bluetooth and Wi-Fi requires low power consumption, which is energy-efficient. Geoff specifically talked about the current low-power Wi-Fi: "Now it is necessary to reduce the power consumption of low-power Wi-Fi to a new level, down to ZigBee, which is currently 1/10 of Wi-Fi power consumption or 1/100."
Every time I talk about low power consumption, the reporter's impression is "no minimum, only lower." Different vendors are listing their own device power consumption data and comparing it. Sometimes you even suspect "Really?". However, we do see that the voltage, current and battery size in practical applications are constantly decreasing. From edge nodes to gateways, IoT applications require energy management and energy conversion efficiency improvements. “Freescale MCUs have seen significant improvements in energy efficiency,†Geoff said. “We are faced with a market with broad demand for low power consumption, which is both a technical challenge and an opportunity for Freescale. We will Continued low-power leadership on the Kinetis and Kinetis L families to continue to develop low-power products and extend battery life."
In fact, MCUs are using technology to achieve low power consumption, and use new cores to cooperate with existing platforms, but they need to have a design concept, and they can't do it. They don't have their own characteristics. Real ultra-low power consumption requires years of accumulation. Geoff revealed: "In fact, many of Freescale's low-power technology breakthroughs come from China."
The above talks about the complete IoT ecosystem, where security is at the core. Security, scalability and energy efficiency continue to drive the development of IoT. There are also many applications that are becoming or will be part of IoT in the near future. Industrial applications such as energy conversion, motor control, factory automation, and medical equipment (personal wearable devices that require extremely low power consumption). Geoff also talked about his views on Industry 4.0. He believes that the real realization of the Industrial Internet of Things will reach the era of Industry 4.0, and it will take 2050, rather than the 2020 forecast by some institutions in the industry. The “large†and “stable†nature of industry is an important reason for “delayâ€.
Commitment to China
Freescale will continue to uphold its commitment to China – defining, designing and producing in China. Freescale's five R&D centers in China, four of which are developed for MCU research and development. In addition, it has the world's largest packaging and testing facility in Tianjin with more than 3,000 employees. MCU has the highest capacity in the Tianjin plant, and 90% of Freescale's global MCU products are packaged and tested at the Tianjin plant.
Geoff listed some of the progress and achievements of Freescale in China in 2014: “Tianjin's testing department is expanding and the number of test production engineers has increased significantly. Based on more new products, Freescale opened new sales office services in China. A wide range of markets, we currently have 16 sales offices in China. Last year and Zhou Ligong MCU launched the i.MX ARM9 development board 'zero profit' project to achieve unprecedented success, direct 'second kill'."
The development board is the platform for the chip to communicate with the engineers. The evaluation of the chip by the engineers sometimes depends on whether the development board is "powerful". In the past, Freescale's development kits were developed in the United States. Now, in order to better meet the needs of Chinese engineers, Freescale China team has developed Freescale's exclusive MCU development platform MAPS four-color board series. Mr. Jin Yujie, Director of China P&L Marketing, Freescale Microcontroller Division, said: “China develops MAPS to meet the needs of local development engineers, M stands for MCU, A stands for application, P stands for the perimeter, and S stands for the connection board like Arduino. The development platform adopts the original design concept and is suitable for evaluation and development of all Freescale MCU products. It has the characteristics of low cost, scalability and easy copying, which meets the needs of users. It is suitable for all needs to learn and apply Freescale. Used by MCU products. The MAPS four-color board series development platform adopts a unified interface, which can be connected with the dedicated application board, and can also be flexibly combined with the existing Freedom board and open source Arduino development board to further optimize the user experience. Enables rapid program validation and development and leverages existing resources."
Breaking new action
The first position of the microcontroller has been occupied by a Japanese company, but for a variety of reasons, only this "boss" is negative growth in this year's IC Insights forecast. As the second-ranked global MCU industry, Freescale, of course, wants to win the battle and compete for the first. Geoff said: “It is very challenging to maintain growth above the average market speed, so we need to focus on the development and launch of new products. We will also focus on new markets, strengthen partnerships, and relationships with the alliance. And the acquisition of new companies to expand our technology and occupy new markets. Last week we announced the acquisition of Zenverge, a US-based company in advanced network technology and high-definition multimedia processing ICs, which will enhance Freescale Carl's range of IoT applications handles, stores and interconnects to further meet market demands."
Geoff also broke the news of Freescale's plans for the next few years. For example, the launch of the new Kinetis MCU, low-power Bluetooth, Wi-Fi module, MCU Kinetis with interconnected features, and plans to double the MCU revenue in 2015.
Geoff added: "Freescale continues to introduce new products, many of which are designed for China, and also adhere to Freescale's commitment to China. For example, Freescale introduces the industry's first 15 W Qi-compatible wireless charging solution. 2015 In the year, more new products will be launched for the Chinese market, which will be just around the corner, such as new low-cost processors."
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