Junko Yoshida
EE Times
Tell us who makes the best 10 IoT processors. Is there a table somewhere that lists the top 10 IoT processors? What makes one IoT processor more successful than others?
If we assume that the IoT market is picking up momentum, can we add the corollary that IoT processors are keeping pace and the semiconductor industry is hitting the jackpot?
If so, where are these IoT processors? Is there a table somewhere that lists the top 10 IoT processors? What makes one IoT processor more successful than others?
These aren’t unreasonable questions.
IoT, after all, has been the flavor of the month among chip vendors for several years. Riding the coattails of IoT, they have been eagerly shopping their product portfolios while touting their growth potential.
I began seeking out this elusive Top Ten on my own, mainly for the purpose of boning up on the subject of IoT processors. The more people I talked to and the more white papers and press releases I read on the topic, the more ambiguous my potential story became. I couldn’t pin down industry analyst who was comfortable telling me who’s winning or losing.
I’ve come to understand that there are several reasons why the state of the market is still in such a flux and no such list as “top 10 IoT processors” exists.
In flux
First, the IoT market – no matter how you slice and dice it – isn’t much different from the embedded system market. Yes, these “embedded” IoT devices are “connected.” But just as MCU vendors have struggled to figure out how to serve the fragmented embedded market for decades, so will IoT processor suppliers struggle. The IoT market is so fragmented that it’s hard to find one winning processor.
Second, the unprecedented number of M&As in the chip industry in the last 18 months is also at play.
Tony Massimini, chief of technology at Semico Research Corporation, said, “There have been more M&As in the last two years than what we experienced in the past 20 plus years.” No wonder everything is still in flux.
A chip vendor that just acquired another company is typically busy reviewing a newly added product portfolio, comparing its own, and trying to come up with a strategy, Massimini said.
A case in point is Microchip’s acquisition of Atmel. Combined, they command several different MCU product lines and connectivity elements. As Massimini pointed out, it remains to be seen “how they organize themselves” in the IoT market.
Another example is Cypress Semiconductor.
Cypress announced last month a $550 million deal to acquire Broadcom Corp.’s Wireless Internet of Things (IoT) business. The deal includes Broadcom’s Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee IoT product lines and intellectual property. It also includes Broadcom’s WICED brand and developer ecosystem.
Oh, and by the way, Cypress also bought Spansion last year.
Massimini noted that before all this happened, Spansion, added to its embedded flash business by acquiring MCU and analog businesses from Fujitsu.
Again, who knows how – or how soon – Cypress’ new stable of IoT-related properties will coalesce into a coherent strategy for the company’s great IoT processor quest?
Meanwhile, does this mean that IoT is no longer an interest of Broadcom (formerly known as Avago, before it bought Broadcom)?
Broadcom, contacted by EE Times to explain the situation, declined an interview. Mike Demler, a senior analyst at The Linley Group, noted that last December, Broadcom announced sampling of a new 2.4 GHz WICED family for Bluetooth and 802.15.4. Dempler noted that they “appear to be very competitive with other Cortex-M4-based IoT chips on the market. Broadcom is apparently the first company to announce manufacturing in 40 nm embedded flash, which could provide a performance and integration advantage.”
But of course, now that Broadcom is selling WICED to Cypress, Demler said, “Yes, it looks like they’re exiting the IoT business.”
Definition
Third, there’s the matter of what-the-heck. How do we define an IoT processor?
“By our definition,” Demler said, “an IoT processor must provide some built-in connectivity function, even if it’s just the wireless baseband.”
The Linley Group excludes from the category standard embedded processors and MCUs that many vendors now call IoT processors, since those devices have served for many years in non-Internet-connected applications. “So, integrated wireless connectivity is a key differentiator,” Demler said.
Those who lack that capability may combine their processors with a separate radio in a multichip package, suggested Demler, “but that increases cost, footprint, and possibly power.” The radio chip might also be from a third-party supplier, but then, “it raises support issues.”
Further, he added, “Using an embedded flash process reduces cost, size, and power, and enables running the Bluetooth or ZigBee protocol from on-chip memory.”
Both Massimini and Demler agreed that integrated security features are a must-have. “Wireless IoT processors must come with the software stack to provide a complete solution,” said Demler.
Massimini observed that if the NXP FTF Tech Forum this week is any indication of a trend, combining security expertise with IoT is becoming a key differentiating feature for some companies like NXP. Connecting to the Internet “opened a can of worms,” he noted. “Now, people are saying, oh, no, everyone can see everything!”
Sensor fusion
Fourth, what about sensor fusion? Aside from its connectivity to the Internet, the element that makes an IoT processor different from the usual MCUs is that it can collect – and possibly process – a volume of data coming from different sensors.
Questions to ask: Are IoT system vendors looking for a solution combined with an app processor (which can become a sensor hub)? Or do they want a standalone processor – capable of collecting and processing sensory data without an apps processor?
Aside from security, another important differentiator is “integration of the analog/mixed-signal interfaces to handle sensors and actuators,” explained Linley Group’s Demler. “Vendors that are more digital-centric often lack high-performance analog capability.”
When it comes to sensor fusion, though, Massimini believes that MIPI’s upcoming I3C will play a key role in future IoT processor designs.
The Mobile Industry Processor Interface (MIPI) Alliance has designed a new extension of the Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C or I2C) interface between microelectromechanical system (MEMS) and other sensors to either a hub or processor.
As Peter Lefkin, managing director of the alliance, explained, MIPI I3C was developed “to solve a pressing need in the engineering community for a convenient chip-to-chip interface that can alleviate the challenges of integrating sensors in product designs.”
Participants in the development include vendors from across the sensor and mobile ecosystems.
Asked how soon I3C will be available to chip vendors, Lefkin said, “We expect to see adoption continue at a rapid pace once the specification is formally approved by the MIPI Alliance board later in 2016.”
Lefkin and Ken Foust, chair of the MIPI Alliance Sensor Working Group, talked about specific I3C features and advantages.
- One key is MIPI I3C’s 2-wire interface with in-band interrupt capability, which drastically reduces pin count and signal paths and facilitates incorporation of more sensors in a device.
- On a standard CMOS I/O, MIPI I3C supports a minimum data rate of 10 Mbps with options for higher performance, high-data-rate modes. This is a leap in performance and power efficiency compared to previous options.
- MIPI I3C provides synchronous and asynchronous time-stamping to improve the accuracy of applications that use signals from various sensors.
- MIPI I3C also enables sensors to be always-on, even if other components in a device are asleep, while operating at very low power to minimize impact on battery life.
It’s important to note that MIPI I3C isn’t just targeted to support sensors in mobile, but also IoT and other low-power system architectures with greater bandwidth while requiring fewer wires.
“Mature drafts are available and under development now for Contributor and Board members of the MIPI Alliance,” according to the industry group.
IP for MIPI I3C is already reaching the market. Synopsys late April announced immediate availability of the industry's first MIPI I3C controller IP to ease the integration of multiple sensors into applications such as mobile, automotive and IoT.
So we are getting there, I think. But that top 10 IoT processor list? Be prepared to wait for a while.
