Panel giant AUO is targeting the automotive industry by acquiring BHTC, the company's first international acquisition. Frank Ko, CEO and president of AUO, admits his company was "quite jittery" when the acquisition was first announced, with automakers looking forward to AUO becoming a Tier 1 supplier.
"This might be one of the most advanced chips in the world," an official from the Belgium-based Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (Imec) reportedly informed then-Chinese Premier Li Keqiang as he inspected a wafer during his 2018 visit to the semiconductor research institute. Three years before the visit, in June 2015, both Li and then-Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel partook in a signing ceremony that saw Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), Huawei, Imec and Qualcomm co-investing to bring SMIC's 14nm process into volume production by 2020.
In the dynamic landscape of space exploration and satellite deployment, Scottish-based startup Skyrora is making waves and offering a unique perspective. At the forum of TASTI 2023 organized by the Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), Skyrora emphasized the evolving launch industry and the pivotal role played by small startups. Volodymyr Levykin, Skyrora's CEO, unveiled that Skyrora set to make its first orbital launch early in 2024.
During the reorganization of global supply chains, opportunities are being created for countries that are semiconductor markets in which system manufacturers are based. Semiconductors, as the most critical component and device in systems, have become the subject of import replacement efforts that countries with system manufacturing capabilities are eager to undertake.
A recent UBS Evidence Lab's tear-up activity on a BYD Seal electrical vehicle showed that a high level of import substitution in automotive chips is taking place at China EV brands, and the trend is evident in the power semiconductor sector, said Jimmy Yu, China technology analyst, UBS Securities.
AI expert Andrew Ng visited Taiwan at the end of September for a 4-day trip. Before leaving, he sat down for an interview with DIGITIMES and discussed his views on US tech giants, the trend of AI PCs, opportunities and challenges in the GPU market, and more.
The Chinese state-owned media Global Times reported recently, citing sources, that the Chinese tax authorities have conducted audits of Foxconn Group in Guangdong and Jiangsu, among other regions, while the natural resources department has initiated investigations into Foxconn's land use in Henan and Hubei. From the perspective of the industrial supply chain, in the short term, this event is unlikely to have a direct impact on Foxconn's business. However, for many foreign enterprises with operations in China, including Foxconn's future plans, it could potentially have long-term and profound effects.
UK compound semiconductor firm CEO Americo Lemos said that IQE is aiming to establish Taiwan as an important development base for compound semiconductors in Asia to overcome the changing geopolitical and supply chain restructuring challenges, and expects to increasingly use Taiwanese wafer foundries for gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN).
The light generated by synchrotron radiation is produced when charged particles are accelerated by an electric field, unlike lasers that generate coherent light using transitions between atomic energy levels. The wavelength of the light produced by synchrotron radiation can be controlled and designed, ranging from far-infrared to hard X-ray, approximately from tens of micrometers to 0.01 nanometers. This range is sufficient to meet the wavelength requirements for silicon-based semiconductor processes.
In a rapidly evolving technological landscape, the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI) and hardware is reshaping how people perceive computing and its potential applications. Lien Wei-han, the chief CPU architect at Tenstorrent, an innovative Canadian AI startup that has the potential to challenge Nvidia, AMD, and Intel in AI chips and now building its AI servers, shared intriguing insights into the AI revolution and the role hardware plays in enabling it in an exclusive interview with DIGITIMES Asia.
Manufacturing is the cornerstone of many Asian countries. Profet AI helps manufacturers improve efficiency by empowering their employees with AI. The Taiwan-based AI software developer has launched an ambitious plan to expand in Asia, especially China, Japan and Vietnam.
Bipartisan efforts in the US Congress are trying to push the Biden Administration to take action in restricting US individuals or companies from exporting RISC-V technologies to China. US entities will be required to obtain export permits from the Department of Commerce (DoC) before collaborating with Chinese entities on RISC-V technology projects, according to sources. This will be the first time the United States imposes export control on open-source software in the name of "national security."
On October 9, the South Korean presidential office issued a statement stating that it had received notice from the United States that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix's China-based factories are designated as "verified end users" (VEU). As a result, they will not require additional approval processes for importing US chip equipment. Following the news, it was reported that TSMC has also received a similar one-year extension. Nevertheless, in the future, the growth of semiconductor production capacity in China is no longer dominated by foreign investments, but primarily driven by that of China.
In 2024, the semiconductor sector will face several major changes. At the forefront of these changes are innovations in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI server supply chains. DIGITIMES will spotlight these transformations at the "2024 Next-Gen Intelligence Symposium" on November 3, 2023. The event will feature insights from DIGITIMES' senior analysts and industry experts from Supermicro, with the aim to offer a deep understanding of Asia's supply chain dynamics and the evolving tech landscape.
Huawei's success in having its self-developed SoC produced with 7nm technology by SMIC, China's largest wafer foundry service provider, stunned the world. Since Huawei is unable to access EDA tools from US companies, how did they design the new chip? Are made-in-China EDA tools any good?
