Jon Peddie Research - a technically oriented marketing, research, and management consulting firm in the graphics industry.

The Future of Embedded Graphics

Posted by Jon Peddie on October 27th 2009 | Discuss
Tags:

Executive Summary

This report covers the development of the market for CPUs with embedded graphics and their impact on integrated chip sets and discrete graphics.

After fifteen years of stellar growth the IGP will cease to exist, replaced by embedded graphics in the processor. Integrated graphics are used in desktop and net top PCs, notebooks, and netbooks, as well as various embedded systems such as point of sale, set-top boxes, and signage systems.

However, this will not, as many believe, impact the discrete graphics and add-in board market. And, because of the long-life supply agreements on some integrated graphics chips in the embedded systems market they will continue to be shipped until as late as 2013.

For a period of time, between 2010 and 2012 there will be three choices for graphics available: traditional discrete GPUs mounted on add-in boards and/or the motherboard, integrated graphics processor (IGP) chipsets, and processors with embedded graphics. One or more of these devices will be employed in PCs.

As Figure 1 shows embedded graphics will become the dominant solution in terms of unit market share. However, discrete graphics won’t be subsumed by embedded There are two solid reasons for this assumption. One is historical and one is strategic:

• Although IGCs took substantial market share from discrete chips, they never totally replaced them. Rather, the arrival of IGCs helped better differentiate the classes of graphics devices giving discrete chips specific roles in computing.
• Secondly, Intel has invested millions of dollars in developing the Larrabee chip. That’s because they believe the well-defined role for discrete chips continues and the company will use its considerable power in the market to support the role of discrete processors.