NOR flash memory sales growth may be tapering off in mobile handsets and smartphones, but lucrative embedded applications in the tablet, automotive and industrial markets are picking up the slack.

Based on a sample of 55 embedded products dissected by IHS analysts, Spansion led all NOR suppliers in terms of design wins. The company accounted for more than one-third of the NOR chips in the torn-down devices.

Spansion, together with Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology, offered NOR chips in densities averaging in the hundreds of megabits. The three companies accounted for 53.4% of NOR chips in the three subsegments during the period from the third quarter of 2011 to second-quarter 2012.

The rest of the market, equivalent to 46.6% of the sample, is controlled by companies that produced low-density NOR memory below the 100-megabit level, IHS said. This group included big players like Taiwan's Macronix International and Winbond Electronics as well as smaller entities like fellow Taiwanese firms Chingis Technology and Eon Silicon Solution.

"Used to store small amounts of executable code, NOR flash was traditionally employed in devices like cellphones for fast read operations and random access capabilities," said Ryan Chien, analyst for memory and storage at IHS. "However, newer implementations of NAND-based embedded multimedia card (eMMC) solutions that emulate NOR capabilities have resulted in NOR falling out of favor. The percentage of handsets using NOR flash has fallen from 14% in 2010 teardowns to less than 7% since then, found mostly in Samsung smartphones. However, NOR manufacturers have been proactive in their diversification efforts, borne out by a study of recent teardowns in both wireless and embedded categories."

Among the most prominent applications for NOR are tablets, IHS said. Despite the elimination of NOR in the new iPad from Apple, NOR chips were found in several Android alternatives in the teardowns including the Eee Slate and Transformer Prime from Asustek; the Jetstream and Flyer from HTC; and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE and 7.7 from Samsung. Tablet devices from Samsung tended to incorporate the company's own brand, higher-density NOR flash in multi-chip packages, while other branded tablets preferred discrete low-density SPI parts.

In the automotive space, NOR flash plays an increasing role to address vehicle safety regulations and manage user-comfort expectations. Head units in vehicles from Ford, General Motors, Nissan and Honda each had more than 230 megabits of NOR flash. NOR suppliers include Microchip and Micron for Honda and Toyota cars; Toshiba for Nissan vehicles; and Spansion for GM and Ford autos.

The other high-potential market for NOR flash is the industrial space, IHS said. Network-attached storage systems from QNAP Systems and Buffalo Technology use Micron chips, and routers from Ubee Interactive and Ruckus Wireless each include 128 megabits of NOR, according to IHS.

An emerging industrial segment for NOR is the smart grid space, where devices such as feeder protection relays require high-density NOR to help monitor substation power lines, said IHS. All of the NOR flash in hardware made by Sweden's ABB Group is from Spansion, while solutions for US-based Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories make use of Samsung and Spansion NOR parts. Samsung NOR is rare in third-party products, whereas Spansion has been aggressive in addressing this growth segment.