IoT & Embedded Technology Report





Ecosystems Built on Processor Architectures

by Dan Mandell, with Chris Rommel, August 2017

The vast majority of embedded engineering projects today rely on third-party embedded processors and IP as well as their supporting communities of ISVs, semiconductor partners, engineering services providers, and more. Embedded projects are also becoming increasingly complex with more interrelated hardware and software components requiring alignment from the semiconductors on up through the rest of the system.

The architectural landscape for embedded hardware varies greatly, though, by product type and industry application, which complicates project planning and roadmap design. There have also been a number of recent developments indicating the future strengths and direction for commonly used processor architectures such as ARM, Intel/x86, MIPS, and Power. In essence, the choice of which embedded processor to use has a widespread impact on the development, longevity, and ultimate market success of today’s embedded projects.

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