Multiprocessor Sales Set To Boom, Says iSuppli

LONDON — Market revenue and unit sales of multiprocessor chips are both going to increase fivefold in 2006 compared with 2005, according to market forecaster iSuppli Corp.

In the longer term the market revenue is going to grow from $2.6 billion in 2005 to $64.8 billion in 2015 as shipments expand from 14.8 million to 638 million, iSuppli (El Segundo, Calif.) said.

In 2006 the market for such multicore processors is going leap to $13.2 billion followed by $23.2 billion in 2007 and $32.5 billion in 2008. Shipments are set to be 97.7 million, 193.9 million and 284.1 million units in the respective years, iSuppli said. The explosive market growth is essentially a product of a rapid rate of penetration of the processor market by multiprocessing solutions.

The extra transistors being allowed by Moore’s Law are being used in this way, because it can allow the same processing burden to be carried at lower IC clock frequency and lower power consumption than using a uniprocessor, iSuppli said.

The multiple processing core approach has been accepted as the leading design solution for future microprocessors, with all of the major suppliers now developing such products.