The global microprocessor market share is expected to grow exponentially through 2028 owing to rising prevalence of industrial automation across smart factories.
Microcontrollers and microprocessors have been around for more than 40 years. Over time, great advancements in design as well as semiconductor processing have offered high versatility and power to various industries, such as IT, telecom, transportation, aerospace, and so on. These processors vary from minor 8-bit embedded controllers to 32-bit and 64-bit behemoths capable of speeds exceeding 4 Gb/s. Most modern electrical products have been made possible due to their generic programmable character. Nonetheless, these technologies are still evolving to meet cutting-edge demands, which has positively influenced the product landscape.
Notably, there has been increased focus on the development of specialized systems-on-chip (SoCs) with a CPU foundation optimized for certain application areas. As a result, notable advancements in the product to accommodate prominent processing needs have propelled market growth significantly in the past few years.
Recently, industry players have been investing heavily towards the development of new and advanced microprocessor technologies. For instance, in January 2022, Samsung Electronics, a global leader in breakthrough semiconductor technology, unveiled the Exynos 2200, its latest premium mobile processor. The innovative and high-tech mobile processor features hardware-accelerated ray tracing as well as leading-edge Arm-based computing.
The microprocessor market has been segmented in terms of technology, application, and region. With respect to technology, the industry has been bifurcated into reduced instruction set computer (RISC), complex instruction set computer (CISC), superscalar, application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and digital signal processor (DSP). The application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) sub-segment is expected to experience significant growth at around 4% over the review timeline owing to increasing demand for application-specific microprocessors in the market.
Based on application, the microprocessor market has been divided into automotive & transportation, consumer electronics & home appliances, industrial, medical & healthcare, aerospace & defense, IT & telecom, and others. In 2021, the industrial sub-segment held a market share of more than 10% and is speculated to witness notable expansion over 2022-2028. Mounting demand for automation as well as robotics in smart factories is foreseen to bolster the growth of the segment through the study timeframe.
From the regional standpoint, the Latin America microprocessor market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of more than 2.5% over the forecast period. High penetration of data centers that are integrating high-performance computing devices as well as server equipment is anticipated to be a key contributor to regional market growth in the future.