According to a report from Electronic Enthusiasts Network (by Huang Jingjing), with the continuous advancement of hardware and software technologies, the application of embedded systems in industries such as automotive, industrial automation, medical, and the Internet of Things is becoming increasingly widespread. These industries exhibit significant market size and growth rates. In a recent interview with Electronic Enthusiasts Network, Kiyo Uemura, Vice President of IAR Asia Pacific, stated that the demand for embedded development solutions in these industries is not only increasing in terms of functionality and usability but that functional safety and ecosystem support are also becoming crucial. He shared insights on IAR’s product upgrades and ecosystem development in 2024 and provided a forward-looking analysis of market development trends.
Image: Kiyo Uemura, Vice President of IAR Asia PacificAs a global leader in embedded systems development software solutions, IAR has always focused on providing customers with high-performance, high-security development tools. The powerful and flexible product portfolio covers all aspects of embedded software development, enabling customers to easily and quickly develop embedded products applicable to various fields.The core of IAR’s product portfolio is the IAR Embedded Workbench, which provides developers with a complete integrated development environment that includes a compiler, assembler, linker, and debugger. With its integrated solutions and powerful features that can be utilized with just a checkmark, developers can access everything they need in one view. More importantly, IAR Embedded Workbench enables smaller, faster, and smarter code while ensuring robustness, safety, and high quality to meet increasingly stringent standards.In terms of architecture support, IAR’s embedded development solutions cover the mainstream Arm architecture and the rapidly emerging RISC-V architecture, as well as architectures from leading domestic and international manufacturers such as Renesas, STMicroelectronics, NXP, Microchip, and Texas Instruments. Especially in the Chinese market, IAR has built a more open and flexible embedded development ecosystem through cooperation with local partners to promote industry innovation. Additionally, it offers TÜV SÜD certified development tools for functional safety, helping customers meet functional safety standards such as ISO 26262, IEC 61508, and IEC 62304. Furthermore, localized support for the Chinese market includes technical support, training, and ecosystem collaboration, ensuring that local customers’ development needs are met efficiently and comprehensively.
Products and Ecosystem
In terms of products, IAR’s technological layout continually optimizes around functional safety and development efficiency. For example, IAR is set to launch version 9.50.3 of its flagship product, IAR Embedded Workbench for Arm Functional Safety Edition, in February 2024, with the most significant new feature being the TÜV SÜD functional safety certified static code analysis tool C-STAT, which is particularly suitable for automotive, medical devices, and industrial automation applications that have strict functional safety requirements, helping developers easily create safe, reliable, and standards-compliant embedded applications. Additionally, in June 2024, IAR will introduce the TÜV SÜD functional safety certified C-STAT tool for the RISC-V architecture, compatible with IAR Embedded Workbench for RISC-V Functional Safety Edition version 3.30.2, achieving complete integration of its various functional safety tools with the TÜV SÜD certified C-STAT tool.Recently, IAR announced a significant upgrade to the IAR C-SPY debugger extension in VS Code. This upgrade introduces IAR’s Listwindow technology, further enhancing debugging capabilities and establishing the IAR C-SPY debugger as a new benchmark for embedded device debugging in the VS Code environment.The new Listwindow technology provides developers with powerful real-time data visualization and manipulation capabilities, significantly improving debugging efficiency for arrays and data structures. This feature is designed specifically for modern embedded developers, meeting their needs for efficient coding tools, and can significantly shorten debugging time. In the current widespread application of embedded systems, this technological advancement will help developers maintain high quality and high-performance development standards.Moreover, IAR’s multi-core development and debugging capabilities are industry-leading, allowing developers to easily tackle the complexities of multi-core systems, particularly in fields requiring high-performance computing and real-time response.In addition to product updates and functionality optimization, IAR also emphasizes collaboration with ecosystem partners to jointly promote the development of embedded functional safety technology and its support for automotive and industrial sectors. In December 2024, the Functional Safety Expert Group (FSG) China was officially established, consisting of seven leading companies, including PwC Software, IAR, Microchip, Chipright, NXP, Parasoft, and Renesas Electronics. This strong organization, composed of leading domestic and international chip and IP, embedded development tools, operating systems, software testing, and functional safety technology service providers, aims to advance embedded functional safety (FuSa) technology and certification to new heights. FSG China is committed to providing one-stop functional safety certification-related services to help enterprises enhance the value of embedded functional safety certification and support them in efficiently meeting automotive ISO 26262 and industrial IEC 61508 functional safety certification requirements.
Layout in Automotive and Industrial Markets
Both automotive and industrial sectors have long been areas of focus and deep cultivation for IAR, with increasing demands for functional safety, code quality, and development efficiency.In the industrial sector, automation and intelligent transformation are driving the complexity of embedded development. The code quality of embedded systems is critical, as it relates to achieving high-quality control, monitoring, and management functions, thus enabling automated production processes. Utilizing IAR’s embedded development solutions to advance industrial automation can comply with key functional safety standards such as IEC 61508, achieving higher productivity, faster innovation processes, and safe automated operations.For example, the TPS325M0 and TPS325M5 series MCUs from Sipeed for the general industrial field, the HC32F448 series MCUs from Huazhong Semiconductor for industrial control applications, Renesas’s first general-purpose 32-bit RISC-V MCU, as well as the CKS32 series MCUs from ZTE Microelectronics and the PY32 series MCUs from Puran Semiconductor, which can be widely applied in industrial control, energy management, medical electronics, consumer electronics, wireless communication, and the Internet of Things.In the automotive sector, IAR can support a wide range of automotive-grade MCUs, providing a complete suite of functional safety certified embedded software system development tools that fully comply with multiple automotive safety standards such as ISO 26262. With powerful code optimization and comprehensive code quality control, it supports developers in creating compliant and safe automotive embedded applications. Additionally, in response to the rapidly developing demand for the Chinese new energy vehicle market, we have particularly strengthened support for local chips and ecosystem partners, ensuring that developers can quickly adapt to the technical environment and certification requirements of the Chinese market.Whether for human-machine interfaces (HMI), advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), body electronics, multimedia, temperature control, battery charging, dashboards, or other functions, IAR’s products and services can provide assistance. Notably, IAR’s development solutions excel in supporting efficient Arm Cortex-R52+ application development and debugging.
Providing Efficient Support for the Chinese Market
Providing high-quality support and services for the Chinese market and customers has always been a priority for IAR, investing substantial resources in building this direction. We continuously enhance and expand our support capabilities, aiming to provide practical and efficient support and services to customers and partners in the following areas to help them maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly developing market environment:Continuous tool integration and optimization: Integrating IAR’s development tools into manufacturers’ development platforms to jointly provide high-quality solutions for end users and optimize for better user experience and performance.Localized technical support and training: To better serve the Chinese market, IAR has established a localized support team in China composed of experienced application engineers to provide customers with rapid, professional technical support and training services, helping them quickly resolve development issues and challenges. We offer support in various forms in China, including a Chinese website, self-media content and platforms, online support, technical documentation, knowledge bases, and on-site training to help users fully master and utilize our tools and technologies.Application examples and reference designs: Providing users with valuable resources to help them understand best practices and explore innovative ways to apply IAR tools in specific projects, thereby improving the efficiency of product development. By showcasing actual use cases and practical implementation methods, we assist developers in understanding how to optimize workflows and fully leverage the potential of IAR solutions in their applications.
Injecting Resources into RISC-V Development
The RISC-V architecture is gaining popularity among manufacturers due to its open-source nature, particularly in Asian countries like China, which have vast market potential. This is also a significant reason why IAR is optimistic about RISC-V. As the RISC-V architecture is widely applied in commercial fields, the demand for robust, reliable, and comprehensive development tools is increasingly evident. Therefore, IAR has invested considerable resources in supporting the RISC-V architecture and is growing alongside it.IAR Embedded Workbench for RISC-V provides developers with a complete development toolchain, allowing them to compile, analyze, and debug code in the most efficient manner. This integrated development environment supports both RV32 and RV32E 32-bit RISC-V cores, as well as RV64I 64-bit cores and extensions, including C, F, D, M, A, and B extensions, while also supporting Andes DSP and performance extensions.Furthermore, IAR Embedded Workbench for RISC-V also has a functional safety version, which is TÜV SÜD certified and complies with relevant international product safety assessment standards for embedded system development tools. The TÜV SÜD certified C-STAT static analysis tool included allows for early detection of potential errors and coding standard violations during the development process through static analysis, thereby improving software quality and safety, ensuring compliance, and saving valuable time and resources.In addition to the above capabilities, the IAR development platform also supports simple and efficient project migration, whether switching between Arm and RISC-V architectures or between different hardware platforms, significantly reducing the complexity and cost of migration for developers. This flexibility and efficiency not only enhances the competitiveness of enterprises but also provides developers with a more efficient and reliable development experience.In recent years, IAR has also made significant progress in collaborating with RISC-V IP/chip manufacturers in China. For example, in April 2024, Chipright, IAR, and MachineWare jointly announced their collaboration to accelerate the innovation of RISC-V automotive chips compliant with ASIL standards, aiming to simplify the firmware and MCAL development for automotive electronics, providing seamless integration between virtual and physical hardware platforms, allowing designers to begin software development earlier and easily expand their testing environments. Additionally, in 2024, IAR reached cooperation with Chinese companies such as Xinke Integrated and Guoke Huanyu in RISC-V to fully support their RISC-V automotive-grade MCUs and jointly promote the safe development of high-quality applications in the automotive sector.In addition to supporting Chinese customers, IAR is also continuously advancing support for international customers’ RISC-V development. In March 2024, IAR announced another upgrade to its development environment, becoming the first to support Renesas’s first general-purpose 32-bit RISC-V MCU, which features Renesas’s self-developed CPU core. The upgrades to the IAR development environment include advanced debugging capabilities and comprehensive compiler optimizations, fully integrating Renesas’s Smart Configurator tool, design examples, detailed technical documentation, and supporting Renesas’s fast prototype board (FPB).
Market Prospects
Despite numerous challenges in the global business environment, IAR maintained strong profitability in 2024. In terms of revenue, IAR’s net sales from January to September 2024 amounted to 355.2 million Swedish Krona, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%, with a local currency growth rate of 10.0% based on sales regions.In terms of market performance, IAR achieved robust sales growth in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) regions, particularly driven by strong demand for multi-core processor (Arm and RISC-V) development solutions, especially in industries requiring functional safety. Among them, the growth rate in the Asia-Pacific region from January to September 2024 was 10.3%, with mainland China and Taiwan being the largest growth engines, with growth rates of 21% and 26%, respectively.Another observation in the market is the increasing use of RISC-V, leading to a growing demand for embedded tools capable of handling multi-core projects (Arm and RISC-V on the same chip). This trend is particularly evident in industries such as automotive, aerospace, and medical technology, where complex development for both architectures is becoming increasingly common. Our certified tools support both Arm and RISC-V, simplifying the development process and meeting strict functional safety requirements. We have seen growing interest in these tools in several sales regions, with significant growth in RISC-V licensed sales in the third quarter of 2024.Looking to the future, challenges in the business environment are expected to persist, but opportunities also exist. The industry in which IAR operates is characterized by rapid and groundbreaking developments, and we are fully capable of leveraging our profound and unique expertise and capabilities to seize the opportunities before us. IAR will continue to advance deep support for Arm and RISC-V architectures, helping customers accelerate their development processes, improve software quality, and shorten time-to-market. Additionally, IAR will strengthen collaboration with major global customers and partners to drive technological breakthroughs in more industry applications, solidifying its leadership position in the global market.
Disclaimer: This article is original from Electronic Enthusiasts Network, please indicate the source above for reprints. For group communication, please add WeChat elecfans999, for submission and interview requests, please email [email protected].
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