Dylan McGrath
5/17/2012 8:17 PM EDT
消息来源：
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4373255/Hybridization-of-processors-increasingly-rapidly--says-report旧金山消息-------根据市场研究公司IMS Research的一项新报告，2011年，具有两个或两个以上不同类型处理器核的处理器已经占据了处理器市场的一半（2011年处理器市场为1110亿美元）。混合型处理器的出现，增强了其在计算机领域的竞争力，并进入了智能手机，平板电脑和其它高性能嵌入式设备……(详情请看英文原文)
SAN FRANCISCO―Hybrid processors with two or more different types of processor cores accounted for half of the $111 billion processor market in 2011, according to a new report by market research firm IMS Research.
According to the report, hybridization of processors appears to be a critical step in upping the competitive edge in computers and is also a step for chip vendors into smartphones, tablets and other high performance embedded devices. Hybrid applications processor growth in smartphones is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 percent through 2016 and at a 14 percent CAGR in tablets, according to IMS.
With smartphone sales now exceeding PC sales and tablet sales projected to grow steeply, hybridized application specific mobile processors represent the second largest class of processor by revenue after PC processors, IMS said.
Tom Hackenberg, semiconductors research manager at IMS and author of the report, said through a statement that the mobile and media consumption device markets have been critical to the processor hybridization trend over the past decade. Several firms have been offering heterogeneous application-specific processors with a microprocessor core integrating a graphics processor to add value within confined parameters of space, power and cost, Hackenberg said.
The most notable example of hybrid processors are chips that combine a CPU with a graphics processing unit (GPU), introduced by both Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) in 2010. While this hybridization has eliminated the market for the integrated graphics chipset, the GPU market is expected to continue thriving at estimated revenue CAGR of 4.1 percent from 2011 through 2016, according to IMS.
“With double digit revenue growth in these [smartphone and tablet] markets, it’s not surprising to see major processor vendors such as AMD and Intel adopting this strategy to compete for computer market share and expending increasing research and development on embedded solutions," Hackenberg said.
Hackenberg said the hybridization would get even more competitive with the recent launch of the first smartphone based on Intel’s Atom processor. According to Hackenburg, Intel is combining an x86 microprocessor, graphics licensed from Nvidia Corp. and configurable security logic as a "hybrid processor triple play to capture share.”
IMS said it has identified no less than 20 processor vendors that now provide dozens of heterogeneous processing solutions on a single chip. Some of these converging processors have been evolving over time, such as the digital signal controller, a convergence of digital signal processors (DSPs) and microcontrollers with the real-time processing performance of a DSP and an expanded instruction set for controller applications, the firm said. FPGA vendors are now actively targeting SoC ecosystems with an embedded processor core identical to and applications processor or microcontroller but enhanced with configurable logic, the firm said.
