Or, will the connectivity of every embedded device change the landscape completely and push the odds more in Macronix's favor?

From Macronix's point of view, the 256-Mbit introduction is an effort to secure the lion's share of what it expects will be a $2 billion market by 2014, up from $645 million today (figures from Web-Feet Research used by Macronix in its positioning presentation). That's a sizable chunk of change no matter where you sit. However, when put in perspective, it may be that Macronix's competitors have bigger opportunities to chase.

I spoke with Web-Feet's CEO and founder, Alan Niebel. He said serial NOR is $654 million out of a total $5 billion NOR flash market today, and by 2014 that total will reach $6 billion. So theoretically, serial NOR will take a larger share of the total and that may irritate Macronix's competitors, Numonyx, Winbond, Atmel and Spansion. In that order, with Macronix on top.

However, put against the back drop of a total NOR and NAND memory market of $20.4 billion, rising to $38.2 billion by 2013, and serial NOR becomes a small opportunity for the likes of Spansion, Samsung and Numonyx to worry too much about.

If they do worry about it, there's no real barrier to entry. Macronix itself admits that any of the top-tier companies could do a 256-Mbit flash next week, if they liked. All that's been lacking, according to Niebel is a standard interface they can all operate from. Will Macronix's new 32-bit scheme be that new interface? I don't know. Do you? What do you think of it?

Take a closer look at how the 32-bit addressing scheme works here and view the MX25L25635E's full datasheet here to get an idea of how Macronix has implemented it.

I can't myself recall the last time a field of highly competitive companies rallied around an interface standard introduced by one of their own without a lot of jostling and bloodshed first.

The third question is whether there's a market pull for a 256-Mbit serial NOR flash. Macronix is confident that set-top boxes, low-cost handsets, WiMAX, networking and servers will demand the extra capacity, along with the usual space savings and signal integrity a serial NOR provides over its parallel brethren. However, at a 1.8x cost increase, according to Macronix, for a same-size-package device over a 128-Mbit device, there isn't really much of a cost savings, though Niebel says this price will surely drop.

So, for double the price, you get double the memory in a market where cost is everything and any cost increase must be justified. If you can get your code into 128 Mbits, you're obliged to stick with it. That handicaps 256-Mbits from the start.

The question then becomes whether or not there'll be a burgeoning need to go beyond 128 Mbit for application code storage for typically low-end embedded systems. There may well be, and not only for the applications Macronix outlined.

As we imbue all embedded devices with some level of connectivity, the applications that have to run on these once-isolated systems may now gravitate beyond those required for single-purpose closed-loop systems. Instead, they may be weighed down with communications stacks, information gathering, collaborative system-type functions, and image and audio processing (yes, even big-brother-type features, if we let it happen).The silicon and sensors needed to add this functionality will amount to pennies in the near future, the application software on top is what will truly explode.

We'll be exploring the how-to and the implications of this ubiquitous embedded connectivity at the up-coming EETimes Virtual Conference: Connected Devices, where yours truly will be hosting a panel on processor choices and connectivity implementation.

In the meantime, I'm curious to know your thoughts on the implications, if any, of Macronix's 256-Mbit laucnh, the interface it's pushing and the potential for embedded connectivity to change the landscape completely.

At some point, Wind River has to stop supporting all non-Intel architectures. As much as they say it's not true, I find it hard to believe. But for now, I'll take them at their word. We'll see what happens over time. It's not the first time that a processor maker has acquired an operating system vendor, and I'm hard pressed to come up with one that stayed independent.

In any event, read Klein's blog, then let me know what you think.

]]> http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=334f3189daab6f99e42a42e754eb2136 http://www.eetimes.com/blog/news/archives/2009/10/wind_river_prom.html http://www.eetimes.com/blog/news/archives/2009/10/wind_river_prom.html Industry Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:02:41 -0500 Steve Jobs might want to change the name of his company back to Apple Computer Inc. after the latest quarterly financial results reported today.

The two panels covered the Current State of Microelectronics and the Current State of Embedded. Both were mostly driven by questions from a standing-room-only crowd.

The Microelectronics panel consisted of reps from NXP, Freescale, ST, and Imagination Technologies. The questions ranged from, "what is an embedded system," to" who will win between Intel and ARM." (See video of Tony King-Smith, VP of Marketing for Imagination Technologies.) You could imagine what the responses were. (Note: Patrick Mannion offers his opinion on Intel vs. ARM on EETimes.com.) Some of those answers were caught on video, while others were audio-recorded. When I figure out how to post the audio and video, I'll do so. You'll get a kick out of the "what is an embedded system" question. I assure you, it's not the answer you'd give to your mom.

The State of Embedded panel featured three of the biggest stars and most widely recognized experts in the embedded arena—Jack Ganssle, Dan Saks, and Niall Cooling. They were asked questions like what programming language will be most popular five years from now; what advice can you give a student looking to get into the embedded space; and why doesn't anyone care about Java.

The most interesting discussion arose when the subject of Linux came up. Ganssle offered a response that certainly raised a few eyebrows. His declaration that "Linux sucks!" began a whole debate on whether Linux really has a place in the embedded market.

One man's opinion (mine) is that it definitely has a place, but it's not the be all, end all. For the right application, it's quite useful. Just don't have it run the plane that I'm riding or running the servers at my bank.

]]> http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=d9abbc418d4e04bc99d13b7066fe1282 http://www.eetimes.com/blog/news/archives/2009/10/esc_uk_sure_had.html http://www.eetimes.com/blog/news/archives/2009/10/esc_uk_sure_had.html Industry Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:48:04 -0500 http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=d9abbc418d4e04bc99d13b7066fe1282&p=4 d9abbc418d4e04bc99d13b7066fe1282 ]]> Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:48:04 -0500 Ray Kurzweil is a fascinating man. That's because he states the future as it is.

The news that came out last week, which was denied (sort of), was that Intel was acquiring Freescale's wireless operations in Toulouse, France. But why stop there? Why not acquire all of Freescale? Intel certainly has the assets to do so. It would really make them the king of the processor hill, possessing its own x86 architecture as well as a significant piece of the ARM business. It also gives them a nice entry into the automotive space, one they've previously not played in, at least in a manner that a Freescale acquisition would provide.

I talked this up with some people in the know at ESC last week, and everyone I encountered agreed that it made sense. One person even took it one step further, saying that he wouldn't be surprised if it moved Intel in to the IP space, a la ARM. That could put them in bed with the FPGA providers, something ARM is just starting to wrap its "arms" around.

What do think? Is this plausible? Does it make sense?

]]> http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=eef7a56c5e07c86f2274d016fe8b9ff7 http://www.eetimes.com/blog/news/archives/2009/09/rumor_at_esc_in.html http://www.eetimes.com/blog/news/archives/2009/09/rumor_at_esc_in.html Industry Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:33:03 -0500 First, an release that isn't derived from gossip, is the announcement from Green Hills that they're starting up a new business unit totally devoted to virtualization. At the time that I heard of the announcement, I questioned the need for a new business unit, and I'm still not sure I understand the reasoning. But regardless, it shows a strong commitment from the company in an area of technology that's just starting to come of age. Even before the announcement, there was little doubt in my mind that Green Hills was one of the leaders in this area.

According to a release made by the company, "The business unit’s flagship product, Integrity Secure Virtualization (ISV), supports hosting of Windows, Linux, VxWorks and other general purpose operating systems in secure virtual containers on ARM, Intel, Power and other processor architectures."

That sounds like virtualization to me.

As processors get more and more complex, the need for virtualization increases. And it's obvious that the processors are headed down that path.

]]> http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=a37af50d4433c4fad9b6d0356cda22b8 http://www.eetimes.com/blog/news/archives/2009/09/scuttlebutt_fro.html http://www.eetimes.com/blog/news/archives/2009/09/scuttlebutt_fro.html Industry Mon, 28 Sep 2009 10:38:33 -0500 It was bound to happen: our garbage is being watched and traced.