PC/104 board market growth expected in embedded, real-time applications

Natick, MA—The global market for “stackable” form factor boards in embedded and real-time applications is expected to grow to just over $204 million in 2008 from $140.5 million in 2004, according to new research by Venture Development Corp. (VDC).

By Control Engineering Staff April 19, 2005

Natick, MA— The global market for “stackable” form factor boards in embedded and real-time applications is expected to grow to just over $204 million in 2008 from $140.5 million in 2004, according to new research by Venture Development Corp. (VDC). This expansion of the market for PC/104 family modules is projected despite some architectural shift within this technology.

The PC/104 family includes three form factors or architectures, which differ according to the expansion buses provided. Traditional PC/104 provides only the venerable ISA bus for expansion, while the newer PC/104-Plus provides both ISA and PCI. The newest version, PCI-104, dispenses with the ISA bus, providing only PCI.

The ISA bus has been absent from consumer desktop computers for several years, but still finds utility in many industrial automation applications that do not require high-speed response. However, as demand and supply of controller and bridge chips declines, the ISA-related market will continue to decline. As a result, traditional PC/104 board will only increase to $106.2 million in 2008 from $87.5 million in 2004.

The most dramatic growth is projected for the new PCI-104 architecture, which does not include ISA expansion capability. Although comprising only 5.3% of shipments or $7.4 million in 2004, PCI-104 is expected to reach a share of nearly 16% or $31.9 million in 2008. This is equivalent to an increase of 331% in terms of dollar volume shipments.

Meanwhile, shipments of PC/104-Plus board are projected to increase to $66 million in 2008 from $45.6 million in 2004.

Control Engineering Daily News Desk
Jim Montague, news editor
jmontague@reedbusiness.com