Atmel is the fastest growing 8-bit MCU vendor as per Gartner

Market research firm Gartner in its latest semiconductor vendor analysis, has listed Atmel has the fastest growing 8-bit microcontroller vendor in the world in 2008. Gartner noted that Atmel increased its position to fifth in overall shipments of 8-bit microcontrollers while citing Atmel's performance in three areas of company and financial performance over the past four quarters: total revenues, revenue growth and product sales. Atmel's 8-bit microcontroller based revenue for the 12 months ending December 2008 grew over 16 percent to $466 million, growing faster than other major 8-bit microcontroller vendors in the industry in the overall research ranking.

In the month of November 2008, Microchip and On Semiconductor jointly proposed to acquire Atmel but the Atmel's board rejected the proposal. Microchip is ranked number one in 8-bit microcontroller market. But growth wise and also in getting product awards Atmel's microcontrollers are ahead.

"We are delighted to be recognized as the fastest growing 8-bit microcontroller supplier among the top ten," said Alf-Egil Bogen, Atmel's Vice President of Corporate Marketing. "We believe that we are well positioned for continued success with our strong proprietary AVR microcontrollers and our leading QTouch capacitive touch technology," he concluded.

Though Atmel is growing in 8-bit area, the overall 8-bit microcontroller market is not growing and 8-bit microcontroller market share in the total MCU market is falling.

The growth in microcontroller market is happening in 32-bit area. In 32-bit area, the Japanese microcontroller manufacturers Renesas and NEC together are ranked number one in both 32-bit and overall microcontroller market. Both have announced their merging plans and their combined microcontroller revenue is way ahead of next ranked Freescale Semiconductor. Another Japanese microcontroller manufacturer Fujitsu is not far behind Freescale in revenues. These top 4 vendors garner a market share of around 70% in the 32-bit total market.

With the imminent trend of growing use of 32-bit MCUs, most of the MCU vendors are now focusing on 32-bit.