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.
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!
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.
This sounds like very interesting analysis. You can actually get the data using the Octopart API (http://octopart.com/api). I'd love to see the results so please let me know if you do the analysis.
One then misses out on possibilities that open up by spending another 20 cents. Innovation occurs when new applications are unlocked by products moving into different economic regimes.
Boolean satisfiability allows me to meet a design criteria, derivatives allow me to innovate.
I would like to predict when full blown linux can run on a single chip (on die ram and flash) for less than $2 or below 10 mW. I'd like to be able to track when thresholds are crossed or a combination of features exist at a price point.
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.