News & Analysis
Renesas tips MCU roadmap, but are rivals worried?
Mark Lapedus
5/7/2010 12:42 PM EDT
Going forward, the new Renesas will be a publically traded company in Japan. When combined, the company had $10.212 billion in sales in 2009, making it the world's third largest chip maker, next to Intel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
In 2009, Renesas was the largest MCU player with 18 percent share, followed by NEC Electronics with 12 percent, according to Gartner Inc. This in turn gives the combined entity a staggering 30 percent share. In the MCU market last year, Freescale was third with 10 percent share, followed in order by Samsung (8 percent), Microchip (6 percent), TI (6 percent), Infineon (6 percent), ST (6 percent), Fujitsu (5 percent) and NXP (4 percent), according to the rankings from Gartner Inc.
Needless to say, the overall IC market, including MCUs, was horrible in 2009 due to the recession. Now, the MCU market is back on track and growing, thanks to some new and emerging markets, such as medical, smart grids and others, said Atmel’s Rice.
In 2010, the microcontroller market is expected to reach $12.3 billion, up 14 percent from 2009, according to Databeans Inc. The MCU market fell 21 percent in 2009, according to the firm.
At present, MCU demand is strong ''across the board,’’ said Microchip’s Sanghi. ''All lead times (for MCUs) are long.’’ For example, Microchip’s lead times have extended from 4-6 weeks to 8-12 weeks, said Doug Freedman, an analyst with Broadpoint.AmTech.
Over time, Freedman expects a sea of change in the MCU landscape. ''In the MCU space, I do believe there is more share shift than other markets as the landscape has changed. (There is) the new Renesas. We also have a refocused Freescale, and newcomers like Cypress,’’ Freedman said.
The question is whether the new Renesas will gain or lose share going forward. In MCUs, Renesas currently sells 16 MCU lines, including the M16C (16-bit), H8S (16-bit), R32C (32-bit), H8SX (32-bit) and the SuperH, a 32-bit RISC line. NEC Electronics sells the V850 and other MPU line. The V850 is a 32-bit line.
Over time, Renesas said it will ''rationalize’’ its MCU lines. But for now, ''nothing is going to be suddenly stopped,’’ said Renesas’ Mahoney. ''You can’t do this to MCU customers.’’
While Renesas will continue to push those products, it is throwing its weight behind its new architecture, the RX. Unlike many of its rivals, Renesas did not take the ARM route for the RX. The new architecture is a proprietary 32-bit, CISC-based MCU line.
It’s a big gamble. Renesas could see better margins with the RX--provided the product line takes off. Many companies have licensed ARM’s architecture and are competing with similar products. “I am not saying that ARM is good or bad, but we decided not to go that route,’’ said Tyagi. ''The RX supports most applications.’’
Next: RX to the rescue!
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Johnxhf
5/9/2010 1:53 AM EDT
Even the new Renesas prdges to mentain/support the old Renesas and NEC lines, None-roadmap is the only doom for legacy produts as no more R&D resources allocated. You need to wait for several years for the full RX lineup. In the interim of Renases' reorganization, his rivals are honing their swords. 2010 is a blow-out year. But who lose this year will loosen in further future.
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PeterTan95
5/10/2010 11:13 AM EDT
then why are you advertising Cream on a Electronic magazine site :D
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Johnxhf
5/10/2010 11:13 PM EDT
I believe you catch the wrong persen for the ad of steam. I also sight the intruder who should have been cleaned. Anyway, It will be intresting if you can also share your comments here on this thread. :)
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PeterTan95
5/11/2010 2:25 AM EDT
Renesas has to stop supporting other products. if you combine the operation and support all.. it means you get the sales and losses same as you take them as individual company. Thats easy to figure out. About RX. the question is how can they popularize their compiler, tools..etc.. and entice the people to change to such proprietary tool.. if they did their previous way of cutting the chip price too low to kick out some supplier, they wont have good profit too..
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Johnxhf
5/11/2010 5:19 AM EDT
It drastically makes non sense to stop the supporting for old Renesas and NEC products as it is no difference to pushing customers out of door. You can invest little on the legacy but not that for support. That is of essentical ethic but not only strategy. And it is not seldom to see such illustrations. for examples, 51x, for some MCU companies, as been major products for last decades and now faded natually and smoothly. It can coexist with other overlaped lines for some years in the same company. For RX, even they make big inroad, typically there will be some years for customers to accepy a new architecture.
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sanjaac
5/19/2010 6:52 PM EDT
If you can get an ARM inside an MCU of many manufacturers -vendor independence-, with all technical flavors about capabilities, peripherals, performance, tools and most important, a huge ecosystem, why would you turn to RX which seems unknown? I see the biggest issue for Renesas to succeed in the MCU arena from now on, to make their chips much more popular, which is something that will not happen overnight.
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DCH
6/24/2010 8:22 AM EDT
In this market, microcontroller lead times are longer than development time to market. The edge on new designs is going to products we already have in the pipeline or vendors (like Microchip at 8 - 12 weeks) who can get the standard product out in volumes.
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