English
The 8051 MCU: ARM's nemesis on the Internet of Things?
Bernard Cole
embedded.com (January 6, 2014)
8- and 16-bit microcontrollers presently dominate the market for connectivity to wirelessly untethered embedded devices and sensors (i.e., the Internet of Things), and I am not convinced that 32-bit MCUs, no matter how cheap they become, will ever match the ubiquity of their smaller brethren in such designs.
In Jack Ganssle’s column titled “Is 8 bits dying?” he reviews all the reasons why 32-bit CPU (and ARM) dominance is likely but not certain, and warns that although ARM Ltd. is in top-dog position at this time, it may not always be so.
He outlined a number of reasons why it could be blind-sided by some unforeseen nemesis, probably an open source microcontroller architecture. One reason, he suggests, is that ARM collects a tax on each part sold, and even if all other costs were zeroed out, these devices can’t compete with 8- and 16-bitters in the most price sensitive applications.
I agree with him on this, and I think the challenge to ARM’s dominance is most likely to occur in the context of the design challenges for adding Internet Protocol to IoT devices.
|
E-mail This Article | 
|
|
Printer-Friendly Page |
Related News
- NXP Introduces Industry's Lowest Power ARM Cortex-A7 Based Processor to Fuel Growth of the Internet of Things
- Arm and Vodafone Commit to Work Together to Simplify Internet of Things (IoT) Deployment
- Eta Compute's David Baker, Ph.D. To Present On Low-Power IP For The Internet of Things At Arm TechCon October 25
- Newracom Announces Availability of Ultra-Low Power ARM Core Based Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n MAC/PHY/Subsystem and RFIC IP for Internet of Things Applications
- Cypress to Acquire Broadcom's Wireless Internet of Things Business
Breaking News
- Frontgrade Gaisler Unveils GR716B, a New Standard in Space-Grade Microcontrollers
- Blueshift Memory launches BlueFive processor, accelerating computation by up to 50 times and saving up to 65% energy
- Eliyan Ports Industry's Highest Performing PHY to Samsung Foundry SF4X Process Node, Achieving up to 40 Gbps Bandwidth at Unprecedented Power Levels with UCIe-Compliant Chiplet Interconnect Technology
- CXL Fabless Startup Panmnesia Secures Over $60M in Series A Funding, Aiming to Lead the CXL Switch Silicon Chip and CXL IP
- Cadence Unveils Arm-Based System Chiplet
Most Popular
- Cadence Unveils Arm-Based System Chiplet
- CXL Fabless Startup Panmnesia Secures Over $60M in Series A Funding, Aiming to Lead the CXL Switch Silicon Chip and CXL IP
- Esperanto Technologies and NEC Cooperate on Initiative to Advance Next Generation RISC-V Chips and Software Solutions for HPC
- Eliyan Ports Industry's Highest Performing PHY to Samsung Foundry SF4X Process Node, Achieving up to 40 Gbps Bandwidth at Unprecedented Power Levels with UCIe-Compliant Chiplet Interconnect Technology
- Arteris Selected by GigaDevice for Development in Next-Generation Automotive SoC With Enhanced FuSa Standards