Opinionated - China Chipping Away to Semiconductor Dominance

[qwerrty]

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RoboSense LiDAR wins CES 2019 Innovation Award for autonomous car technology
China: RoboSense, the world’s leading autonomous driving LiDAR perception solution provider, announced that it has been named a CES 2019 Innovation Awards Honoree for the RoboSense RS-IPLS Intelligent Perception LiDAR System
https://www.geospatialworld.net/new...novation-award-for-autonomous-car-technology/

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Huaxing IC completed a $10 million Series A financing focused on high-performance crypto chips 华兴集成电路完成1000万美元A轮融资 专注于高性能密码芯片
http://finance.eastmoney.com/a/201901031019012936.html

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Briefing: Chinese voice recognition startup AISpeech releases its first custom chip
Jan 4, 2019
The importance of this new chip is also connected to the fact that, in China, speech recognition is an increasingly competitive sector that has produced a number of important IA companies. In fact, AISpeech is not the only one. During the past year, some of these AI companies, including Unisound, Mobvoi and Rokid, have released their custom AI chips.

http://en.cifnews.com/aispeech-releases-first-custom-chip/

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Photonic chip artificial intelligence to help "China chip" for overtaking
光子人工智能芯片助“中国芯”换道超车
2019-01-06 00:34 Beijing News
Operators force is 1000 times faster than traditional electronic artificial intelligence chip, but only one percent of its power consumption, low latency also anti-electromagnetic interference by university doctoral Tsinghua University, Peking University, Beijing Jiaotong University and other research and development of entrepreneurship photon artificial intelligence chip technology the realization of a lot of breakthroughs in the future can be widely used in mobile phones, autopilot, intelligent robotics, unmanned aerial vehicles and other fields. Recently, the photonic chip artificial intelligence project located in Shunyi, will this new technology to the fore.

"Chip design, processing, packaging, testing all completed in China, free from dependence on foreign high-lithography process is the core technology of the lane change chips overtaking." Research team leader Bai Bing said.

http://china.qianlong.com/2019/0106/3043670.shtml

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Gowin Semiconductor Corp.’s Cumulative Shipments Reach 10 million pieces
January 02, 2019 21:00 ET | Source: GOWIN Semiconductor Corp.

SAN JOSE, Calif. and GUANGZHOU, China, Jan. 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gowin Semiconductor Corp. (hereinafter referred to as "Gowin"), the world’s leading innovator of programmable logic devices, announces that its cumulative shipments have reached 10 million pieces. Among them, Gowin’s overall device sales in 2018 exceeded 8 million units, 8 times greater year over year compared to 2017.

In January 2017, Gowin shipped hundreds of FPGA devices for the first time. Since then, Gowin’s sales volume kept surging. By October 2018, the sales volume exceeded 1.2 million units per month. By the end of 2018, the annual sales volume exceeded 8 million pieces.

Up to now, Gowin has more than 400 FPGA customers worldwide, including more than 150 customers in Asia Pacific (China mainland excluded), Europe, and the United States. Customer markets cover a wide range of areas including communications, industrial, medical, LED display, video, broadcast, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and consumer electronics.

"This is a very important milestone for us," said Jason Zhu, CEO of Gowin Semiconductor Corp. "Gowin is still in the early stage of development and we are very happy to achieve such results. This fully proves that our innovative and differentiated design ideas work. We will continue to make breakthroughs in product and technology innovation, and look forward to achieving further success in 2019."

https://globenewswire.com/news-rele...lative-Shipments-Reach-10-million-pieces.html

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high-performance anti-radiation hardened DSP chip released
数字信号处理芯片 “即墨芯”正式发布
11:03 on January 6, 2019
https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2019-01-06/doc-ihqfskcn4484772.shtml

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First ToF Imager from China - image-sensors-world
Wuhan, China-based Silicon Integrated Inc. unveils SIF2310 that it calls "The first back-illuminated area array ToF sensor in China."

The SIF2310 integrates:

• 
  
  
  • HVGA (480x360) ToF pixel array
  • signal generator modulating the IR source
  • 12bit ADC
  • on-chip temperature sensor
  • logic control unit, high-speed clock
  • MIPI interface

The SIF2310 supports modulation frequencies up to 100MHz and output frame rates up to 240fps. With IR light source, SIF2310 can be used in face recognition, AR/VR, motion capture, 3D modeling, machine vision, and ADAS applications. The chip is available in a die or Glass-BGA package.

 

[qwerrty]

more derail on new robosense solid-state lidar

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prnewswire.com
CES 2019 Innovation Award Honoree RoboSense Launches New MEMS Solid-State LiDAR at CES 2019
RoboSense
6-7 minutes
SHENZHEN, China, Jan. 3, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- RoboSense, a leader in LiDAR perception technology solutions and CES 2019 Innovation Award Honoree, announced today that next week at CES 2019, they will publicly demonstrate an upgraded version of their MEMS solid-state LiDAR, an automotive grade solid-state LiDAR designed for the mass production of autonomous vehicles. The new RS-LiDAR-M1 with patented MEMS technology offers ground-breaking vehicle intelligence awareness to fully support Level 5 driverless automated driving. A breakthrough on the measurement range limit based on 905nm LiDAR with a detection distance to 200 meters, the upgraded optical system and signal processing technology brings remarkable final output point cloud effect which can now clearly recognize even small objects, such as railings and fences.

At last year's CES 2018, RoboSense demonstrated the first generation MEMS solid-state LiDAR RS-LiDAR-M1Pre. Just four months later, in May 2018, it was loaded on the Cainiao unmanned logistics vehicle and unveiled at the Ali CainiaoGlobal Intelligent Logistics Conference, becoming the world's first solid-state LiDAR for unmanned vehicles. RoboSense has already been sending the MEMS LiDAR product to the world's top OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. At CES 2019, RoboSense will launch the new RS-LiDAR-M1, showcasing the potential of their MEMS optomechanical system design, with breakthrough improvements in detection distance, resolution, Field of View (FOV), reliability, and other RoboSense award-winning LiDAR sensing technologies.

Double the Horizontal Field of View to 120 Degrees

A major step forward from the previous version award-winning RoboSense RS-LiDAR-M1Pre, the new RS-LiDAR-M1 MEMS optomechanical LiDAR provides an increased horizontal field of view by nearly 100% compared to the previous generation, reaching an amazing 120° field of view, so that only a few RS-LiDAR-M1s are needed to cover the 360° field of view. In addition, with only five RS-LiDAR-M1s, there is no blind zone around the car with dual LiDAR sensing redundancy provided in front of the car for a L5 level of automatic driving -- full driverless driving. Based on the target production cost at $200 each, the cost of five RS-LiDAR-M1 is only 1/100th the highest mechanical LiDAR available to the market, which is more inline with the cost requirements for the mass production of autonomous vehicles.

Measurement Range to 200 Meters

The battle between 1550nm and 905nm LiDAR is about cost and performance. When aiming for a low-cost 905nm LiDAR, it is necessary to overcome the technical difficulties of achieving sufficient measurement range. The RS-LiDAR-M1 achieves a breakthrough on the measurement range limit based on the 905nm LiDAR, with a detection distance to 200 meters.

A Leap Forward in Point Cloud Effect Technology -- Even Small Objects

The unique RS-LiDAR-M1 LiDAR system provides massive improvements, the most remarkable being the final output point cloud effect. The M1's detection capability is greatly improved through the upgraded optical system and signal processing technology, which can now clearly recognize even small objects,such as railings and fences.

"The RoboSense RS-LiDAR-M1 LiDAR system is a giant leap forward for driverless technology," said Mark Qiu, Co-founder, RoboSense. "We are committed to developing high-performance automotive-grade LiDAR at a low-cost to advance the LiDAR market, so that LiDAR can be used in fully unmanned vehicles, as well as assisted autonomous driving with superior environmental information detection that ensures driving safety."

A CES 2019 Innovation Award Honoree, the RS-IPLS first hardware and software algorithm based solution for the mass production of safer autonomous cars includes the RS-LiDAR-M1Pre first generation RoboSense MEMS LiDAR system and AI algorithms. RoboSense will be exhibiting the new upgraded MEMS LiDAR, the RS-LiDAR-M1, at CES 2019, Booth #9310, North Hall. CES is held January 8-11, 2019 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV.

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1082088341779111936

Global Times‏ Verified account @globaltimesnews
Just in: China’s #Huawei Technologies unveils Kunpeng 920 ARM-based central processing unit (#CPU), which claims to be the industry’s highest performing chipset. (Video: Chen Qingqing/GT)

9:35 AM - 7 Jan 2019

https://twitter.com/x/status/1082079466568871938

华为发布业界最高性能ARM-based处理器，创造计算性能新纪录
2019年01月07日

[中国，深圳，2019年1月7日] 华为宣布推出业界最高性能ARM-based处理器-鲲鹏920（Kunpeng 920），以及基于鲲鹏920的TaiShan服务器、华为云服务，并携手产业伙伴推动ARM的产业发展，打造开放、合作、共赢的生态环境，将计算性能推向新高度。

华为董事、战略Marketing总裁徐文伟发布业界最高性能ARM-based处理器-鲲鹏920（Kunpeng 920）

华为董事、战略Marketing总裁徐文伟表示：“华为在计算领域围绕客户价值持续创新；我们预见，随着智能社会的到来，未来这一领域还将持续增长。当前业务和数据的多样性带来了异构计算的需求，长期以来，华为与Intel共同合作取得了很好的成绩，为ICT产业发展作出积极贡献，华为与Intel将长期保持战略合作、持续创新。同时，ARM产业迎来新的发展机会，华为本次发布鲲鹏920及TaiShan服务器，主要应用于大数据、分布式存储、ARM原生应用等场景。我们携手全球合作伙伴，秉承开放、合作、共赢，促进ARM生态发展，做大计算领域空间，拥抱多样性计算时代！”

业界最高性能ARM-based处理器，同性能下功耗降低30%

鲲鹏920是目前业界最高性能ARM-based处理器。该处理器采用7nm制造工艺，基于ARM架构授权，由华为公司自主设计完成。通过优化分支预测算法、提升运算单元数量、改进内存子系统架构等一系列微架构设计，大幅提高处理器性能。典型主频下， SPECint Benchmark评分超过930，超出业界标杆25%。同时，能效比优于业界标杆30%。鲲鹏920以更低功耗为数据中心提供更强性能。

鲲鹏920主频可达2.6GHz，单芯片可支持64核。该芯片集成8通道DDR4，内存带宽超出业界主流46%。芯片集成100G RoCE以太网卡功能，大幅提高系统集成度。鲲鹏920支持PCIe4.0及CCIX接口，可提供640Gbps总带宽，单槽位接口速率为业界主流速率的两倍，有效提升存储及各类加速器的性能。

华为TaiShan，业界性能最优的ARM服务器

华为同步推出基于鲲鹏920的TaiShan系列服务器产品，包括均衡型，存储型和高密型三个机型。TaiShan系列服务器主要面向大数据、分布式存储和ARM原生应用等场景，发挥ARM架构在多核、高能效等方面的优势，为企业构建高性能、低功耗的新计算平台；例如大数据场景，实现了多核高并发和资源调度调优，计算性能提升20%。基于TaiShan服务器，华为云也将提供弹性云服务、裸金属服务和云手机服务。

三个层面发力，积极构建开放、合作、共赢的ARM生态环境

华为从硬件、基础软件和应用三个层面不断推进产业合作。长期以来，华为与GCC、Linaro、OEHI等产业组织，以及Hortonworks、Microsoft、Oracle、SAP、SUSE、Ubuntu、中标软件等合作伙伴共同打造开放、合作、共赢的生态环境。在硬件层面，华为已成为Linaro的核心成员；在基础软件层面，华为已成为OpenStack的白金会员、CNCF的Founder成员；在应用层面，华为参与绿色计算产业联盟GCC，GCC发布《绿色计算产业联盟服务器标准白皮书》、并构建绿色计算开源开放社区；华为在欧洲参与“Open Edge+HPC Initiative”。

华为认为，万物互联、万物感知和万物智能的智能社会正加速到来，基于ARM的智能终端应用加速发展并出现云端协同；与此同时，云计算下的新业务让数据类型越发多样性，如大数据应用、分布式存储和部分边缘计算等，这些场景应用对多核（Many Core）高能效计算提出明确需求，在性能和功耗方面具有优势的ARM计算系统将发挥作用。

从行业趋势和应用需求看，多样性计算时代正在到来，多种数据类型和场景驱使计算架构的优化，多种计算架构的组合是实现最优性能计算的必然选择。徐文伟最后表示:“麒麟980助力华为手机推向智慧新高度，基于昇腾310的产品和服务（如华为云）使能行业普惠AI；今天，我们以鲲鹏920，把计算带入多核异构的多样性时代。华为在计算领域厚积薄发、持续的创新突破 ，与客户及伙伴一起共同努力，构建万物互联的智能世界！”

 

[Rafi]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1082088341779111936

Global Times‏ Verified account @globaltimesnews
Just in: China’s #Huawei Technologies unveils Kunpeng 920 ARM-based central processing unit (#CPU), which claims to be the industry’s highest performing chipset. (Video: Chen Qingqing/GT)

9:35 AM - 7 Jan 2019

https://twitter.com/x/status/1082079466568871938

华为发布业界最高性能ARM-based处理器，创造计算性能新纪录
2019年01月07日

[中国，深圳，2019年1月7日] 华为宣布推出业界最高性能ARM-based处理器-鲲鹏920（Kunpeng 920），以及基于鲲鹏920的TaiShan服务器、华为云服务，并携手产业伙伴推动ARM的产业发展，打造开放、合作、共赢的生态环境，将计算性能推向新高度。

华为董事、战略Marketing总裁徐文伟发布业界最高性能ARM-based处理器-鲲鹏920（Kunpeng 920）

华为董事、战略Marketing总裁徐文伟表示：“华为在计算领域围绕客户价值持续创新；我们预见，随着智能社会的到来，未来这一领域还将持续增长。当前业务和数据的多样性带来了异构计算的需求，长期以来，华为与Intel共同合作取得了很好的成绩，为ICT产业发展作出积极贡献，华为与Intel将长期保持战略合作、持续创新。同时，ARM产业迎来新的发展机会，华为本次发布鲲鹏920及TaiShan服务器，主要应用于大数据、分布式存储、ARM原生应用等场景。我们携手全球合作伙伴，秉承开放、合作、共赢，促进ARM生态发展，做大计算领域空间，拥抱多样性计算时代！”

业界最高性能ARM-based处理器，同性能下功耗降低30%

鲲鹏920是目前业界最高性能ARM-based处理器。该处理器采用7nm制造工艺，基于ARM架构授权，由华为公司自主设计完成。通过优化分支预测算法、提升运算单元数量、改进内存子系统架构等一系列微架构设计，大幅提高处理器性能。典型主频下， SPECint Benchmark评分超过930，超出业界标杆25%。同时，能效比优于业界标杆30%。鲲鹏920以更低功耗为数据中心提供更强性能。

鲲鹏920主频可达2.6GHz，单芯片可支持64核。该芯片集成8通道DDR4，内存带宽超出业界主流46%。芯片集成100G RoCE以太网卡功能，大幅提高系统集成度。鲲鹏920支持PCIe4.0及CCIX接口，可提供640Gbps总带宽，单槽位接口速率为业界主流速率的两倍，有效提升存储及各类加速器的性能。

华为TaiShan，业界性能最优的ARM服务器

华为同步推出基于鲲鹏920的TaiShan系列服务器产品，包括均衡型，存储型和高密型三个机型。TaiShan系列服务器主要面向大数据、分布式存储和ARM原生应用等场景，发挥ARM架构在多核、高能效等方面的优势，为企业构建高性能、低功耗的新计算平台；例如大数据场景，实现了多核高并发和资源调度调优，计算性能提升20%。基于TaiShan服务器，华为云也将提供弹性云服务、裸金属服务和云手机服务。

三个层面发力，积极构建开放、合作、共赢的ARM生态环境

华为从硬件、基础软件和应用三个层面不断推进产业合作。长期以来，华为与GCC、Linaro、OEHI等产业组织，以及Hortonworks、Microsoft、Oracle、SAP、SUSE、Ubuntu、中标软件等合作伙伴共同打造开放、合作、共赢的生态环境。在硬件层面，华为已成为Linaro的核心成员；在基础软件层面，华为已成为OpenStack的白金会员、CNCF的Founder成员；在应用层面，华为参与绿色计算产业联盟GCC，GCC发布《绿色计算产业联盟服务器标准白皮书》、并构建绿色计算开源开放社区；华为在欧洲参与“Open Edge+HPC Initiative”。

华为认为，万物互联、万物感知和万物智能的智能社会正加速到来，基于ARM的智能终端应用加速发展并出现云端协同；与此同时，云计算下的新业务让数据类型越发多样性，如大数据应用、分布式存储和部分边缘计算等，这些场景应用对多核（Many Core）高能效计算提出明确需求，在性能和功耗方面具有优势的ARM计算系统将发挥作用。

从行业趋势和应用需求看，多样性计算时代正在到来，多种数据类型和场景驱使计算架构的优化，多种计算架构的组合是实现最优性能计算的必然选择。徐文伟最后表示:“麒麟980助力华为手机推向智慧新高度，基于昇腾310的产品和服务（如华为云）使能行业普惠AI；今天，我们以鲲鹏920，把计算带入多核异构的多样性时代。华为在计算领域厚积薄发、持续的创新突破 ，与客户及伙伴一起共同努力，构建万物互联的智能世界！”

Game changer, fck you trump.

 

[JSCh]

Huawei introduces high-performance ARM-based CPU
By Ma Si | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2019-01-07 11:35

Xu Wenwei,chief strategy marketing officer at Huawei, unveils Kunpeng 920 in Shenzhen on January 7. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd unveiled a high-performance chip for servers on Tuesday to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers such as Intel Corp, amid its ongoing push to expand presence in the semiconductor sector.

The central processing unit, called Kunpeng 920, is based on the ARM architecture. It is designed to better meet the exponentially growing demand for bigger computing capabilities in data centers while offering lower power consumption.

Xu Wenwei, chief strategy marketing officer at Huawei, said no single architecture can meet all computing demands and the company aims to move toward a more diversified computing power world.

"Kunpeng 920 is arguably the world's best high-performance ARM-based CPU," Xu said, "from the moment on, the saying that the ARM design is not good at processing data becomes invalid."

The move also marks that Huawei has joined the ranks of players such as Qualcomm Inc to challenge the dominant position of Intel's x86 architecture in server chips.

Designed on the basis of ARM architecture, Kunpeng 920 feature far lower power consumption than Intel's X86-based processors, which can greatly help reduce energy costs.

Power consumption accounts for around 30 to 50 percent of IT costs, Li Guanyu, deputy head of the informatization and software service department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in an earlier interview.

"As the demand for real-time data processing capabilities will surge in future, the global industry desires high-efficiency, low-energy and low-cost servers," Li added.

Huawei Rolls 7nm ARM Server CPU | EE Times
Kunpeng 920 said to outperform ThunderX2, Ampere by 25%
By Rick Merritt, 01.06.19

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Huawei announced a 7nm Arm-based server CPU it claims outperforms rivals and servers using it. The Kunpeng 920 shows the increasing sophistication of China’s largest system vendor and chip designer at a time when it’s at the center of heated trade tensions with the U.S.

The Kunpeng 920 packs 64 custom Arm-v8 cores running at 2.6 GHz. It supports eight DDR4 channels running up to 2,933 MT/s, two 100G Ethernet ports and PCIe Gen 4.

Huawei said the chip hits 930 on a SpecInt benchmark. It claimed that puts it 30% ahead in performance and 30% in power efficiency over Arm server rivals such as Marvell’s ThunderX2 and Ampere’s eMAG, recently adopted by Huawei’s server rival Lenovo.

ThunderX2 and eMAG are 16nm CPUs with 32 cores running at similar speeds but using slower DDR4 and Gen 3 PCIe interfaces. The Kunpeng chip still lags Intel’s 14nm Xeon Gold which surpasses 1000 on SpecInt using only 18 cores.

Huawei has long been rumored to be working on a high-end Arm-based server CPU. To date, Arm-based chips have had little traction in data centers beyond use in appliances and storage controllers, in part due to the dominance of Intel’s x86 in server software.

For example, Microsoft’s Azure team said it was testing such chips more than a year ago, but it has yet to announce any production use of them. Amazon bought Arm chip designer Annapurna, but so far has used the chips mainly as storage controllers. Last year, Qualcomm folded its ARM server CPU group to cut a billion dollars from its expenses after China failed to approve its mega-merger with NXP.

Intel is pairing its latest Xeon chips with its proprietary Optane DIMMs and adding more machine-learning capabilities to the CPUs. In November, AMD announced a 7nm x86 server processor as a follow on to its 14nm version, soaking up some of the demand for an alternative to Intel.

Huawei said it will target the chips at native Arm applications and jobs such as big data and distributed storage that benefit from many cores. It announced three versions of servers that will use the chips as well as three cloud services it will offer, including a so-called Phone Cloud service.

Next page: Kunpeng proprietary to Huawei’s growing servers

The Kunpeng 920 hits 930 on the SpecInt benchmark.Click to enlarge. (Source: Huawei)
​

The Kunpeng 920 adds to a large and growing x86 server business for Huawei. The company plans to continue its mainstream x86 line which it said has grown from sales of just 77,000 systems in 2012 to more than 918,000 last year.

Huawei’s processor comes at a time when the telecom giant has surpassed Apple to become the world’s second largest smartphone maker. Its latest handset uses its own 7nm application processor released about the same time as a similar chip in the iPhone.

TaiShan servers target applications that can make use of its 64 custom Arm v8 cores. Click to enlarge. (Source: Huawei)​

Despite its prowess in semiconductors, Huawei has no merchant market plans, said a company executive.

“Since the early 1990s when we released our first chip, we have never thought about making HiSilicon a separate business…[and that remains] our long term strategy,” he said.

The news comes as Huawei is at the center of a U.S./China trade war impacting the tech industry. The company’s CFO was recently detained in Canada at the request of the U.S. alleging a role in selling banned equipment to Iraq.

In a similar dispute, the U.S. effectively shut down operations for several weeks last year at Huawei’s smaller cousin, ZTE, after banning sales of U.S. chips to the company.

— Rick Merritt, Silicon Valley Bureau Chief, EE Times

 

[TaiShang]

Game changer, fck you trump.

The US is winning.

This is what their media says ten times a day.

China, on the other hand, will collapse soon because Apple is going down the drain.

 

[qwerrty]

they don't sell it to others. disappointing.. at some point they will have to spin-off their chip division..

 

[qwerrty]

lol

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Samsung Electronics Chooses Micro LED from Sanan Optoelectronics Over Its Own Micro LED
www.etnews.com
5-6 minutes

Samsung Electronics is planning to commercialize micro LED TV by working a biggest LED company in China. Micro LED TV is a next-generation TV that has its pixels composed of ultra-small LEDs. Fact that Samsung Electronics, which is the number one TV manufacturer in the world and has its own LED business, is choosing Chinese company’s technologies over its LED technologies is drawing heads from other industries. China, which has been playing so-called ‘chicken game’ in LED markets, has also emerged as the ‘number one threat’ in micro LED markets as well.

According to industries on the 11th, Samsung Electronics recently made a strategic partnership with Sanan Optoelectronics and it decided to purchase micro LEDs produced by Sanan first. Sanan Optoelectronics and Samsung Electronics have maintained an exclusive relationship for three years as it was the only company to supply micro LEDs to Samsung Electronics. Samsung Electronics also promised to pay advance payment of $17.0 million (18.4 billion KRW) to Sanan Optoelectronics.

Samsung Electronics made this partnership with micro LED TV in its mind. Micro LED TV is a TV that has its pixels (smallest unit that composes a display) composed of ultra-small LED and it is excellent in brightness, contrast range, and color representation ability without needing backlights or color filters. However, it needs many LEDs. About 2,600 LED chips are needed just to make a 4K-resolution TV. Their interests agreed with each other from an aspect that Samsung Electronics was looking to secure large scale of LEDs and Sanan Optoelectronics was looking to secure a stable customer. Although Sanan Optoelectronics is a normal business, it is the biggest LED chip manufacturer in China.

Fact that Samsung Electronics is joining hands with a Chinese company is drawing heads from other industries. Samsung Electronics is manufacturing its own LED chips and packages through its LED Business Team. Despite manufacturing its own LEDs, Samsung Electronics’ business department that oversees TVs made a strategic partnership with Sanan Optoelectronics. It can be seen it made such move as Sanan’s competitive edge in LED surpasses Samsung Electronics’ competitive edge.

Samsung Electronics selected LED as one of five new businesses in 2010 and it has been promoting its LED business on full-scale. It has been very active in LED business as it commercialized its own sapphire ingot and finished products. However, global LED markets went into a ‘game of chicken’ due to oversupply and cheap Chinese products, Samsung’s LED business was restructured as it started to make losses. It seems that loss of continuous competitive edge was the ultimate cause for Samsung Electronics to lose an opportunity in a new market called ‘micro LED’.

On the other hand, Chinese businesses that have grown with support from Chinese Government and others have prepared stepping stones to grab upper hands even in micro LED markets.
Samsung Electronics is the biggest TV manufacturer in the world and it is looking to promote micro LED TV as its next-generation strategic product. Actually, it started large display business using LEDs and it is working on micro LED TVs for homes. It is estimated number of demands for LEDs will continue to increase greatly in the future. It is worrisome that Chinese LED businesses, which are already giving hard time on South Korean LED industries, will become an even bigger threat in the future.

“It is heard that Sanan Optoelectronics ordered 150 MOCVD (Metal-Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition) equipment, which are equipment necessary for manufacturing LEDs, at the end of last year for its partnership with Samsung Electronics.” said a representative for a South Korean LED business. “There is not a business in South Korea that can make such a large-scale investment.”

According to a market research company called Markets&Markets, it is estimated that size of micro LED markets will grow by 54.7% annually on average from $250 million in 2017 to $19.92 billion in 2025.
“We made a partnership with Sanan Optoelectronics to commercialize micro LED.” said Samsung Electronics. “However, we are also looking to work with other companies as well when necessary.”
Staff Reporter Yun, Keonil

 

[Han Patriot]

lol

--

Samsung Electronics Chooses Micro LED from Sanan Optoelectronics Over Its Own Micro LED
www.etnews.com
5-6 minutes

Samsung Electronics is planning to commercialize micro LED TV by working a biggest LED company in China. Micro LED TV is a next-generation TV that has its pixels composed of ultra-small LEDs. Fact that Samsung Electronics, which is the number one TV manufacturer in the world and has its own LED business, is choosing Chinese company’s technologies over its LED technologies is drawing heads from other industries. China, which has been playing so-called ‘chicken game’ in LED markets, has also emerged as the ‘number one threat’ in micro LED markets as well.

According to industries on the 11th, Samsung Electronics recently made a strategic partnership with Sanan Optoelectronics and it decided to purchase micro LEDs produced by Sanan first. Sanan Optoelectronics and Samsung Electronics have maintained an exclusive relationship for three years as it was the only company to supply micro LEDs to Samsung Electronics. Samsung Electronics also promised to pay advance payment of $17.0 million (18.4 billion KRW) to Sanan Optoelectronics.

Samsung Electronics made this partnership with micro LED TV in its mind. Micro LED TV is a TV that has its pixels (smallest unit that composes a display) composed of ultra-small LED and it is excellent in brightness, contrast range, and color representation ability without needing backlights or color filters. However, it needs many LEDs. About 2,600 LED chips are needed just to make a 4K-resolution TV. Their interests agreed with each other from an aspect that Samsung Electronics was looking to secure large scale of LEDs and Sanan Optoelectronics was looking to secure a stable customer. Although Sanan Optoelectronics is a normal business, it is the biggest LED chip manufacturer in China.

Fact that Samsung Electronics is joining hands with a Chinese company is drawing heads from other industries. Samsung Electronics is manufacturing its own LED chips and packages through its LED Business Team. Despite manufacturing its own LEDs, Samsung Electronics’ business department that oversees TVs made a strategic partnership with Sanan Optoelectronics. It can be seen it made such move as Sanan’s competitive edge in LED surpasses Samsung Electronics’ competitive edge.

Samsung Electronics selected LED as one of five new businesses in 2010 and it has been promoting its LED business on full-scale. It has been very active in LED business as it commercialized its own sapphire ingot and finished products. However, global LED markets went into a ‘game of chicken’ due to oversupply and cheap Chinese products, Samsung’s LED business was restructured as it started to make losses. It seems that loss of continuous competitive edge was the ultimate cause for Samsung Electronics to lose an opportunity in a new market called ‘micro LED’.

On the other hand, Chinese businesses that have grown with support from Chinese Government and others have prepared stepping stones to grab upper hands even in micro LED markets.
Samsung Electronics is the biggest TV manufacturer in the world and it is looking to promote micro LED TV as its next-generation strategic product. Actually, it started large display business using LEDs and it is working on micro LED TVs for homes. It is estimated number of demands for LEDs will continue to increase greatly in the future. It is worrisome that Chinese LED businesses, which are already giving hard time on South Korean LED industries, will become an even bigger threat in the future.

“It is heard that Sanan Optoelectronics ordered 150 MOCVD (Metal-Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition) equipment, which are equipment necessary for manufacturing LEDs, at the end of last year for its partnership with Samsung Electronics.” said a representative for a South Korean LED business. “There is not a business in South Korea that can make such a large-scale investment.”

According to a market research company called Markets&Markets, it is estimated that size of micro LED markets will grow by 54.7% annually on average from $250 million in 2017 to $19.92 billion in 2025.
“We made a partnership with Sanan Optoelectronics to commercialize micro LED.” said Samsung Electronics. “However, we are also looking to work with other companies as well when necessary.”
Staff Reporter Yun, Keonil

I still remember 10 years ago the Indians were laughing at Sanan Opto. They say this company will soon collapse, this was after Sanan invested in some MOVCD machines which were made domestically.

 

[TaiShang]

I still remember 10 years ago the Indians were laughing at Sanan Opto. They say this company will soon collapse, this was after Sanan invested in some MOVCD machines which were made domestically.

Some Indians (on this forum) beats you to first laugh and then see the facts.

On the other hand, Chinese businesses that have grown with support from Chinese Government and others have prepared stepping stones to grab upper hands even in micro LED markets.

Government's helping and guiding hand is very critical. The same happened when Taiwan region begun to build itself as a computer and then microchip kingdom. Government's hand is everywhere.

Japan is similar, too.

 

[qwerrty]

Some Indians (on this forum) beats you to first laugh and then see the facts.




Government's helping and guiding hand is very critical. The same happened when Taiwan region begun to build itself as a computer and then microchip kingdom. Government's hand is everywhere.

Japan is similar, too.

sanan's nicroLED lo
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theverge.com
Samsung’s 75-inch MicroLED 4K TV is a huge step into the future
Chris Welch@chriswelch
5-6 minutes
After introducing an enormous MicroLED TV called The Wall at last year’s CES, Samsung has returned in 2019 with a smaller, 75-inch 4K TV that’s a far more practical fit for the living room. It uses the same MicroLED foundation as The Wall, combining “individual tiles of self-emissive MicroLEDs, featuring millions of inorganic red, green and blue microscopic LED chips that emit their own bright light to produce brilliant colors on screen.” There’s no backlight required, so MicroLED displays can be incredibly thin.

But the bigger appeal of MicroLED is picture quality that should rival or beat OLED without any of the pitfalls of using an organic compound; that’s what the O in OLED stands for, after all. In theory, MicroLED should deliver perfect blacks (all of the microscopic LEDs can be turned off individually), best-in-class brightness, and an incredibly wide HDR color palette — without burn-in and hopefully with a significantly longer lifespan than OLED panels, since there’s no natural degradation to worry about.

 

[JSCh]

Semiconductor makers boosted by AI trend
By He Wei in Shanghai | China Daily | Updated: 2019-01-11 10:17

Technicians check chips at a technology company in Guigang, the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.[Photo by Tan Kaixing/for China Daily]

The increasing commercialization of artificial intelligence is set to give China a substantial boost in the global semiconductors field, say international researchers.

Revenues from semiconductors manufactured in China will grow by 25 percent to approximately $110 billion in 2019, as producers meet the increasing domestic demand for chipsets, fueled in part by AI advances, said consultancy Deloitte Global in an annual industry preview released on Tuesday.

A Chinese chip foundry will begin producing semiconductors specialized to support AI and machine learning tasks, thanks to massive domestic demand and the technological might of domestic tech giants, said Chris Arkenberg, a research manager with Deloitte's Center for Technology, Media and Telecommunications.

"China is perhaps better positioned now than ever before to become a globally competitive player in both semiconductors and AI ... because leading digital businesses (in China) have signaled that greater domestic self-supply of semiconductors is a vital component of their future," he said.

For instance, China's technology trio, namely Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, hold stakes in more than half of China's 124 unicorn startups, including SenseTime, the world's most valuable pure-play AI company.

"They are spending and hiring aggressively to create onshore manufacturing capabilities approaching those of the top global foundries," Arkenberg noted.

Beijing's Horizon Robotics, founded by the former head of Baidu's Institute of Deep Learning, supplies embedded chips for machine vision and is working with major automotive brands to provide edge processing with machine vision for vehicles.

Another notable Chinese chip player, Cambricon, also has a line of chips specializing in supporting machine learning tasks, contributing design support for AI in Huawei's Kirin smartphone chipset and then delivering its own machine learning solutions for data centers.

The massive troves of data in the Chinese market will help to improve the precision and accuracy of algorithms, thus fueling the development of AI chips, said Roger Chung, Deloitte Research TMT senior manager.

In announcing the decision to establish a dedicated chip company in October, Zhang Jianfeng, chief technology officer of Alibaba, attributed the tech giant's unique position to lead breakthroughs in chips to its "advantages in algorithm and data intelligence".

AI is likely to become a springboard for China's semiconductors industry in the long term, given the massive troves of data generated in various scenarios and the relatively easier access to them, said Bill Lu, a Hong Kong-based managing director in research at UBS.

"China's top internet players have the biggest command of consumer data and are better positioned to bear the ever-increasing marginal costs to capture new customers," Lu said.

Advances in AI are one of the driving forces for the global semiconductor industry with an anticipated 5 to 6 percent growth rate over the next two decades, said Morris Chang, founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, in September.

 

[JSCh]

Unigroup starts mass production of 3D NAND backend lines
Shinee Wu, Taipei; Willis Ke, DIGITIMES
Monday 14 January 2019

Unimos Microelectronics, a re-invested memory backend service affiliate of China's Tsinghua Unigroup, has recently kicked off volume production at its 3D NAND memory chips packaging and testing lines, marking a great stride by the group toward building sound memory and storage ecosystems.

Unimos Microelectronics was renamed in July 2018 from ChipMos (Shanghai), originally a wholly-owned subsidiary of Taiwan's ChipMos Technologies, after Unigroup acquired a 48% stake in the subsidiary in June 2017 to become the largest shareholder of the joint venture.

Unigroup sources said that Unimos has fared smoothly in shifting its operation focus to memory packaging and testing services. The company started construction of brand-new 3D NAND backend service lines in April 2018, completed installation of clean rooms in May, kicked off trial production in June, finished initial product verification in September, and passed product validations at clients in November.

Unigroup can now provide one-stop backend services for memory products, including 3D NAND (raw NAND, eMMC, UFS, eMCP, TF card), 2D NAND, NOR, DRAM, and SRAM.

The group's memory production arm Yangtze Memory Technology (YMTC) has completed in-house development of 32-layer 3D NAND chips and is set to start mass production at its Wuhan production base in 2019, with construction of its memory plants in Nanjing and Chengdu also underway. In addition, the group has also kicked off construction of an SSD plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.

Industry sources said China's market has shown ever-expanding demand for 3D NAND, with the penetration ratio for 3D NAND in enterprise-use SSD products shooting up to 77% in 2018 from 10% in 2015 and the corresponding ratio for consumer SSD surging to 60% from 3%. This has demonstrated the mainstream status of 3D NAND in application to either enterprise or consumer SSDs.

To meet the market demand, Unigroup inked in November 2018 a long-term strategic partnership with China's SSD maker Shenzhen Longsys Electronics and then teamed up in December with Taiwan-based NAND controller chip provider Phison Electronics, to deepen cooperation in memory chip supply chains, product designs and contract production to further expand the group's memory and storage ecosystems.



https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20190114PD208.html

 

[JSCh]

SMIC reportedly to move 14nm process to volume production in 1H19 | DIGITIMES
Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES, Taipei
Wednesday 30 January 2019

Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC) is expected to enter volume production of chips built using 14nm FinFET process technology in the first half of 2019, fulfilling the first orders coming from the handset sector, according to media reports in China.

SMIC has managed to improve its 14nm process manufacturing yield rate to 95%, the reports said. SMIC has made significant progress with its FinFET process development since Liang Mong-song, former R&D guru of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Samsung Foundry, joined the Shanghai-based foundry.

Meanwhile, financial support from the government has been accelerating the development of SMIC's 14nm and more advanced process technologies since 2018, the reports indicated. SMIC has plans to roll out more advanced 10nm and 7nm FinFET processes.

Liang reiterated during SMIC's most-recent investors meeting the foundry's push for advanced technology development. SMIC has developed its 28nm HKC+ process platform, and is gearing up for risk production of chips using the company's first-generation FinFET node in the first half of 2019, according to Liang.

 

[TaiShang]

I think 2019-2020 will be threshold years for China's semiconductor industry. China will at least join in the leading manufacturers, cutting down on expensive imports.