RISC-V is becoming a mainstream architecture to share the market with Intel's X86 and Arm. Being an open platform, it is especially attracting extraordinary attention from semiconductor industry participants as well as investors amid rising geopolitical tensions that are putting restrictions on technology innovations. The popularity of RISC-V is reflected in the fact that as soon as news about RISC-V hosting a 2022 RISC-V Taipei Day event on the auspicious occasion of SEMICON Taiwan 2022 went public, the event was fully booked in a day. DIGITIMES hosted an exclusive interview with RISC-V International CEO Calista Redmond, who gave a detailed account of RISC-V and Intel's collaboration, the outlook for RISC-V's business development and the roles it aims to play in the semiconductor industry.

The Indian automotive giant Mahindra & Mahindra recently announced the launch of a series of consumer electric vehicles, joining a rapidly growing market. But even as the Indian EV market gathers momentum, certain supply chain shortage concerns persist, especially with regard to semiconductors and components.

The supply of high-end electronic power semiconductors, such as automotive MOSFETs and IGBTs, continues to be tight with delivery times still at 50 weeks or more. These power components can be produced using mature silicon-based (Si-based) semiconductor manufacturing processes, especially by 8-inch wafer fabs.

Officials from the Information Technology Electronics and Communication (ITE&C) Department of India's Telangana State recently made another trip to Taiwan to woo investment in the southern Indian state including its capital Hyderabad, home of some tech giants' R&D centers.

The fresh US export restrictions on chips to China and Russia seem to have pushed the decoupling of the semiconductor technology a step further. DIGITIMES Asia had an exclusive interview with Abishur Prakash, co-founder and geopolitical futurist at the Center for Innovating the Future (CIF), on how the fragmented and divided vertical camps of globalization will be a new status quo for geopolitics due to US-China competition.

Technology not only changes the way people live, but also what they eat. As more people consider going on a plant-based diet as part of the personal endeavor to reduce carbon emissions, the quality of non-animal foods is also improving. However, the population of vegetarians or vegans account for only 2% of the world's total population, according to Jen-yu Huang, CEO and founder of Lypid.

Japan's largest display manufacturer Japan Display Inc (JDI) will produce free-shape OLED displays for car uses, and its eLEAP technology brings out higher brightness and longer lifetime than traditional OLED display, according to JDI's AutoTech business unit head Seiichi Fukunaga.

The consumer electronics supply chain is facing mounting inventory levels with many resorting to price reductions trying to maintain market shares. But the supply of power semiconductors such as medium- to high-voltage MOSFETs, IGBTs and SiC power components and modules remain relatively tight, with the delivery lead time for automotive-grade IGBTs still extending to over 50 weeks.

Data is the foundation of autonomous driving. Nexar, an AI computer vision company, analyzes street information through a network supported by its dash cams. Integrating real-time data with human driving behaviors, the Israel-based company aims for a solution that would upgrade self-driving cars' training.

As resilience has become as a critical keyword for global supply chain manufacturers, Harvard Business School professor Willy Shih, in a pre-event interview for the DIGITIMES Asia Supply Chain Summit, highlighted risks and opportunities when companies pursue resilience amid ongoing pandemic uncertainties, geopolitical tensions and sustainability regulatory changes.

As PlayNitride is currently the sole company in the world to begin LED volume production, and there are industrial advantages in Taiwan, Taiwan has a chance to be a global leader in developing micro LED applications. This, however, hinges on PlayNitride's strategic cooperation with supply chain makers, according to Charles Li, Playnitride founder, chairman and CEO in a Digitimes interview.

The steady growth of the EV market in India has thrown a fresh perspective and opportunity to automobile component makers. One of the oldest and leading companies in this segment, Uno Minda, says that it intends to capture 20 to 25 percent of the market share in the near future.

After launching series of policy incentives including "Make in India," "Phased Manufacturing Program," and "Production-Linked Incentive," India has successfully boosted its electronic manufacturing industries, and become the world's second largest producer of mobile phones. The Semicon India Program announced in the second half of 2021 has further increased India's attractiveness to Taiwanese companies.

Germany-based Beckhoff Automation, an automation solution specialist founded in 1980 and headquartered in Verl, has been operating in the field of industrial automation for over 40 years. Its experience built and technologies developed during these years have earned the company partnerships and trust from the industrial big names such as Canadian machinery supplier Husky, Switzerland-based Georg Fischer and German robot manufacturer Kuka Robotics.

The Taiwan-based Kinpo-Compal Group has expanded its deployments since the early 1980s, making its presence in the global market the most extensive among Asian electronics supply chain makers. The group operates a total of 58 production sites worldwide. In 2021, it generated NT$1.37 trillion (US$46.58 billion) in revenue and ranked 20 among the top-100 firms in 2022 edition of the Asia Supply Chain 100 survey conducted by DIGITIMES Asia.