MCUs - 2012 report: Market primarily driven by automotive and industrial consumption segments

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "2012 Microcontrollers" report to its offering.

Microcontrollers are found in just about everything controlling touch screens, engine controls, data acquisition systems, IC cards, and even washroom fixtures. Products are found in 4-Bit, 8-Bit, 16-Bit, and 32-Bit and higher resolutions.

Microcontrollers can be found in electronic product designs from every end-market, and although they are found in the highest volumes in automotive and industrial applications, they are being developed for next-generation products emerging from the communications, consumer, and computer markets, as demand is increasing for cost-effective solutions that can also provide greater complexity in processing at a lower rate of power consumption.

These components are typically classified according to external data bus bit width. For example, microcontrollers are found in 4-bit, 8-bit, 12-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit, and 128-bit resolutions. For the purposes of this report, Databeans classifies microcontrollers into three categories, according to bit resolution: 4-bit/8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit.

The greatest consuming applications for microcontrollers can be found in the automotive market, in powertrain, airbag control modules, and body electronics. They also have a substantial presence in the industrial market, where they are found in smart card applications, operator interface, PLCs, control infrastructure, and in medical applications. This market continues to be driven primarily by the automotive and industrial consumption segments.