MCU Memory Trends: How Much and What Kind, 4Q 2009 Update

2009 was a rough year for most semiconductors, and MCUs were no exception. A major reason for the 2009 MCU sales decline was a sharp drop in overall average selling prices comounded with the severe drop in end-use demand, especially in the automotive market. The high rate of ASP decline was indicative of the tough economic conditions impacting the semiconductor industry:

• Chip vendors slashed prices in order to move product.
• OEMs reduced inventories, thus impacting the unit shipments.
• The supply chain and production pipeline were reduced considerably in 1H 2009.

However, there was a strong resurgence of MCU sales starting in 2H 2009, providing a strong momentum going into 2010 and spurring renewed MCU growth. The MCU market will grow 36.2% on sales in 2010. Semico projects continued steady sales growth with 12.3% in 2011. Flash based MCUs account for about 65% of sales in 2010 and will continue to grow in market share throughout the forecast period.

What does 2011 hold for MCUs? Semico has released a study to answer this question. The study, MCU Memory Trends: How Much and What Kind 4Q 2010 Update is focused on how the MCU market breaks out by the different embedded memory technology and densities. The requirements of the end-use markets impact these factors. The memory technology for IC cards is broken out separately. Semico examines the price trends for the different MCU memory technologies as well as the distribution by memory density. In addition to the report, Semico provides detailed tables and figures in a companion Excel workbook, consisting of 14 tables and 24 figures.