5 ms·

The Octopart Microcontroller Price Index

36 points by janineyoong 12y ago

ISL 12y ago
It'd be okay if you created an index of the price of the top-selling N microcontrollers at any given time, rather than tracking them for their entire life cycle. The 8086 was a great and important processor, but it's no longer relevant to any discussion of processor prices. The S&P 500 does this for stocks; perhaps their implementation and design choices can find some application here?
- janineyoong 12y ago
  Yes, that would definitely be ok! The microcontrollers included in this index are a function how we rank them in the Octopart search index, which reflects some element of "top-selling" but probably not adequately so (i.e. your point on the 8086 is a good one). Regardless, we think stock indexes are indeed are good role model for this kind of exercise. If there's interest in this we might invest in: (a) continuing to track this with better documentation on how we do it, and (b) start tracking more categories of parts.
- hkmurakami 12y ago
  If following the S&P500, you'd want to weight it by the equivalent of "market cap". From what I can tell from the caption on the price index [1], this seems to be an equal weight index (which in the case of the stock market, results in a larger beta than the actual index). [1] http://octopart.com/component-price-index http://octopart.com/component-price-index
- jmpe 12y ago
  "... but it's no longer relevant to any discussion of processor prices" Kinda pedantic remark: No longer relevant as a stand-alone device but don't overlook the IP core market. It's pretty common to find one or more of these old cores as a module in a more complex device (e.g. an FPGA) or as the base for an ASIC (esp. automotive). Same for the 8088, 8051, 6502, ...
  - hkmurakami 12y ago
    Do such uses of IP manifest itself in this price index though? (I presume not, since even bare silicon prices should be several cents cheaper than a final packaged discrete device for SIP uses)
    - jmpe 12y ago
      One extreme is ARM cores: incredibly popular, there are several in your laptop and probably half a dozen in your smartphone, ... ARM holdings is an IP & design company, they design & license cores. But regarding those old cores I mentioned ... lots of use because it's legacy with lots of developers that know the architecture.
ohazi 12y ago
Is it just me, or are almost all of the microcontroolers in that "top 1000" list from Microchip? If so, that doesn't seem like a very representative sample.
- sliverstorm 12y ago
  Really comes down to how Octopart determines relevance in the search. If "Relevance" is just another word for "arranged by sales volume", then it could be very representative.
  - rasz_pl 12y ago
    Only if you ignore whole market segments, like Automotive, or 'cheap chinese shit'.
- andres 12y ago
  There are other manufacturers in the top 1000 (e.g. Cypress, Adesto, Atmel) but currently the list does seem to be heavily weighted towards Microchip. This is a first stab at a component price index so it's a work in progress!
  - sitkack 12y ago
    I don't really care about top microprocessors per se, I'd rather see a feature / price index. Meaning can I run a HLL on a micro, deep sleep, number of io, pwms, usb, etc. Track mips/watt/$ and ram/$ along with forecast lines. If design with $3 part now, I'd like to know that it will drop to 1.75 in 2 years. I find it rather ironic that filtering by price in product selectors is new and or rare. We exist in an economy predicated on cost efficiencies, where many of my designs are driven primarily on a price-point, part selection is an iterative process where cost absolutely plays a role and often the first one.
    - andres 12y ago
      This sounds like very interesting analysis. You can actually get the data using the Octopart API (http://octopart.com/api http://octopart.com/api). I'd love to see the results so please let me know if you do the analysis.
kjs3 12y ago
Doesn't appear to include any 8051 descendants. I have doubts.

36 points by janineyoong 12y ago

ISL 12y ago

It'd be okay if you created an index of the price of the top-selling N microcontrollers at any given time, rather than tracking them for their entire life cycle. The 8086 was a great and important processor, but it's no longer relevant to any discussion of processor prices. The S&P 500 does this for stocks; perhaps their implementation and design choices can find some application here?

janineyoong 12y ago
Yes, that would definitely be ok! The microcontrollers included in this index are a function how we rank them in the Octopart search index, which reflects some element of "top-selling" but probably not adequately so (i.e. your point on the 8086 is a good one). Regardless, we think stock indexes are indeed are good role model for this kind of exercise. If there's interest in this we might invest in: (a) continuing to track this with better documentation on how we do it, and (b) start tracking more categories of parts.
hkmurakami 12y ago
If following the S&P500, you'd want to weight it by the equivalent of "market cap". From what I can tell from the caption on the price index [1], this seems to be an equal weight index (which in the case of the stock market, results in a larger beta than the actual index). [1] http://octopart.com/component-price-index http://octopart.com/component-price-index
jmpe 12y ago
"... but it's no longer relevant to any discussion of processor prices" Kinda pedantic remark: No longer relevant as a stand-alone device but don't overlook the IP core market. It's pretty common to find one or more of these old cores as a module in a more complex device (e.g. an FPGA) or as the base for an ASIC (esp. automotive). Same for the 8088, 8051, 6502, ...
- hkmurakami 12y ago
  Do such uses of IP manifest itself in this price index though? (I presume not, since even bare silicon prices should be several cents cheaper than a final packaged discrete device for SIP uses)
  - jmpe 12y ago
    One extreme is ARM cores: incredibly popular, there are several in your laptop and probably half a dozen in your smartphone, ... ARM holdings is an IP & design company, they design & license cores. But regarding those old cores I mentioned ... lots of use because it's legacy with lots of developers that know the architecture.

ohazi 12y ago

Is it just me, or are almost all of the microcontroolers in that "top 1000" list from Microchip? If so, that doesn't seem like a very representative sample.

sliverstorm 12y ago
Really comes down to how Octopart determines relevance in the search. If "Relevance" is just another word for "arranged by sales volume", then it could be very representative.
- rasz_pl 12y ago
  Only if you ignore whole market segments, like Automotive, or 'cheap chinese shit'.
andres 12y ago
There are other manufacturers in the top 1000 (e.g. Cypress, Adesto, Atmel) but currently the list does seem to be heavily weighted towards Microchip. This is a first stab at a component price index so it's a work in progress!
- sitkack 12y ago
  I don't really care about top microprocessors per se, I'd rather see a feature / price index. Meaning can I run a HLL on a micro, deep sleep, number of io, pwms, usb, etc. Track mips/watt/$ and ram/$ along with forecast lines. If design with $3 part now, I'd like to know that it will drop to 1.75 in 2 years. I find it rather ironic that filtering by price in product selectors is new and or rare. We exist in an economy predicated on cost efficiencies, where many of my designs are driven primarily on a price-point, part selection is an iterative process where cost absolutely plays a role and often the first one.
  - andres 12y ago
    This sounds like very interesting analysis. You can actually get the data using the Octopart API (http://octopart.com/api http://octopart.com/api). I'd love to see the results so please let me know if you do the analysis.

kjs3 12y ago

Doesn't appear to include any 8051 descendants. I have doubts.