Microcontrollers head towards the bleeding edge
When it comes to process technology, microcontrollers have generally been the industry's poorer relations. For many reasons, it made – and still makes, in many cases – good sense to manufacture them on trailing processes, rather than on the bleeding edge, as is the case with microprocessors.
Yet times are changing – and it's all because of the Internet of Things (IoT). In essence, just two parameters drive the development of mcus aimed at IoT applications – power consumption and price. And it seems the only way that leading mcu developers can hit these targets is by heading towards smaller process geometries.
Not long ago, if you suggested to a leading mcu developer they would be talking about manufacturing on a 28nm process, you may well have got a strange look in return. But that's what happening.
