Motorola Inc says it shipped 79m 680×0/ColdFire embedded processor chips in 1997, making it the leader in the 32-bit embedded market. Shipment volumes increased by 14m last year, and Motorola says the number of design-ins continues at an unprecedented rate. According to IDC figures, the 68K/ColdFire achitecture accounted for almost 40% of total revenues in the market for the year. The ColdFire core is seeing increased use in digital consumer electronics products and business peripherals, such as satellite receivers, video games, multi-function office peripherals and laser and ink-jet printers. 3Com Corp’s PalmPilot organizer uses the architecture. Over 25% of business was contributed by integrated customer-specific ASIC chips. The ColdFire range currently spans parts with performance from 1 to 100 MIPS, and Motorola has a roadmap taking the part up to 300 MIPS by the year 2001. Motorola also offers PowerPC chips to the embedded market for higher-end applications, and the new M-Core product line for applications needing lower power consumption.
