1. The automotive IC market has achieved record growth for three consecutive years!
Gathering micro-messages, consumer and government requirements for automotive electronic systems, vehicle performance, comfort, convenience, alertness, and error correction are increasing. According to IC Insights' latest published market report, the impact of these factors Next, the automotive IC market and the automotive memory module market are expected to continue to rise by 18.5% this year, surpassing last year's $27.2 billion, setting a record high of $33.2 billion (Figure 1).
If this prediction is true, it means that the automotive IC market will achieve double-digit growth for three consecutive years.
Figure 1
In the past few years, the global automotive IC market has witnessed an astonishing development.
Although it fell by 2.5% in 2015 after an increase of 11.5% in 2014, there was a strong rebound of 10.6% in 2016.
It is worth noting that in 2015, the decline in the automotive IC market was mainly due to the decline of the key automotive IC products, such as microprocessors, analog ICs, DRAM, flash memory, general-purpose and dedicated logic ICs, and ASP. The annual steady growth of the automotive IC market.
IC Insights’ latest automotive IC market forecast shows that by 2021, the automotive IC market will grow to US$43.6 billion, which means that the compound annual growth rate from 2017 to 2021 is 12.5%, which is six major The highest growth rate in the IC segment. (Figure 2)
Figure II
In general, the automotive IC market will only account for 7.5% of the total IC market in 2018. By 2021, this proportion will increase to 9.3%. Among them, analog ICs, including general-purpose analog ICs and special-purpose vehicle analog ICs, will account for In 2018, 45% of the automotive IC market, MCU accounted for 23%.
On the other hand, due to the acquisition of automotive analog IC suppliers in recent years, the number of large manufacturers has gradually decreased. Among them, acquisitions that affect the automotive analog IC market include: In 2015, NXP acquired Freescale, and now Qualcomm is planning to acquire NXP; In 2017, ADI acquired Infineon and Renesas acquired Intersil. (Proofread/Aki)
2. The three major factions of the battle AI chip: Intel betting network processor;
Recently, in the 103-year-old San Francisco Art Palace, Intel’s new technology conference, the Artificial Intelligence Developers Conference (AIDC’), arrived on schedule. This time, Intel focused on broadening the artificial intelligence ecosystem.
Between the Romanesque architecture and the technological AI scene, Intel’s AI helmer Naveen Rao talked about Intel’s artificial intelligence software and hardware combination, and the most important information was the Nervana neural network chip's announcement, according to the plan. , Intel's latest AI chip Nervana NNP L-1000, will be officially introduced to the market in 2019, this is Intel's first commercial neural network processor products.
Two years ago, Naveen Rao was the chief executive and co-founder of deep learning startup Nervana Systems. After the company was acquired by Intel, Nervana became the core battleship of Intel artificial intelligence, Nervana NNP series came into being, Naveen Rao Appointed as head of the artificial intelligence product division.
Carey Kloss, vice president of Intel’s artificial intelligence product group, and an Nervana team member during an exclusive interview with a 21st Century Business Herald reporter, said: “We started researching and developing Lake Crest (Nervana NNP series initial chip code) at the beginning of our business. At that time, our entire team was about 45. People, are building the largest Die (silicon chip), we have developed Neon (deep learning software), also built a cloud stack, these are done by small teams. But this is also the challenge, small team growth will have pain , It took us a long time to get the first products out. Nervana was founded in 2014. Until last year the chip was really introduced.
However, after joining Intel, Nervana can use Intel's various resources, 'Of course, calling resources is not an easy task, but Intel has extensive experience in the marketization of products. At the same time, Intel has so far I have seen The best post-silicon bring-up and architecture analysis. Carey Kloss told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, 'We have hundreds of systems running at the same time in the production chip, Nervana's employees and 6 months The members who had just joined were also working day and night to work together for new products. 'In his view, Nervana is now at a reasonable pace and has all the elements for success next year.
In addition to Nervana, Intel’s acquisition of artificial intelligence flagship companies also includes Movidius, FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) giant Altera, SmartDrive related Mobileeye, etc. that focus on visual processing. In fact, since 2011, Intel has been investing continuously. AI-related companies, including China's Cambrian, Horizon. At the same time, Intel's competitors are also growing. Nvidia's GPU in the field of artificial intelligence has made great strides; Google recently released the third generation of AI chips TPU, the chip optimized for Google's deep learning architecture TensorFlow, and Google provides developers with TPU and other underlying services; last year, Baidu and ARM, Ziguang Zhuangrui and Hanfeng Electronics released DuerOS smart chip, mainly to provide voice interaction solution Programs; Facebook and Alibaba have also entered the chip field, among them, Alibaba Dharma is developing a neural network chip called Ali-NPU, which is mainly used for images, video recognition and cloud computing scenarios.
How will Intel respond to the 'experience' of this artificial intelligence chip?
Three factions fighting for hegemony On the whole, the current global artificial intelligence landscape is not yet clear, and it belongs to the local warfare for technological exploration. It has not entered the overall battle for crowds. Artificial intelligence is a general concept. The specific application scenarios vary widely. The emphasis is different. If classified according to technology and business genre, global companies can be divided into three factions. The first is system application school. The most typical representatives are Google and Facebook. They not only develop a system-level framework for artificial intelligence. , such as Google's famous artificial intelligence framework Tensorflow, Facebook's Pytorch, but also put into large-scale application. For example, Google spends heavily on research and development of automated driving, launching translation and other 2C services. Facebook also applies artificial intelligence technology widely used in social networks. Image processing, natural language processing and many other fields.
The second category is the chip school. Currently, it mainly provides computing support. The biggest players are Intel and Nvidia. Nvidia's GPU captures the critical timing of computing device demand, and the computing performance in graphics rendering, artificial intelligence and blockchain fields. Prominently, it also puts pressure on Intel in these businesses. At the same time, Nvidia seems to be different from Intel's 'Intel Inside'. It also hopes to become a real computing platform and has successfully launched its own CUDA platform.
On May 30th, Nvidia released the world’s first computing platform that combines artificial intelligence and high-performance computing—HGX-2. This is also the largest GPU—the computing platform behind DGX-2. As a traditional computing field. Intel, the boss, is naturally not to be outdone. The 50-year-old company is full of old meanings. In recent years, it has repeatedly launched heavy-handed mergers and acquisitions in the field of artificial intelligence: In 2015, it acquired the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) giant. Altera, lays the groundwork for the future development trend of computing power. FPGA has great potential in cloud computing, internet of things, and edge computing. In 2016, Intel acquired Nervana and plans to use the company’s ability to engage in deep learning to combat it. GPU; also acquired visual processing chip startup Movidius in the same year; in 2017, Intel acquired Israel to help drive the company Mobileye with 15.3 billion US dollars, designed to enter the field of automated driving.
In addition to the system application school and the chip school, the third category is the technology application school, and most of the remaining companies belong to this category. Although different companies all claim to be studying in depth, the field of artificial intelligence has deep or even unique Accumulation of technology, but in fact most of them are based on system application and chip technology platform. Only technical applications send more C-end users, including autopilot, image recognition, enterprise-level applications, etc. Objectively speaking, technology applications The faction belongs to 'the gentleman is good at things and things are also'.
Judging from the current competitive landscape, the System Application School has gradually taken up its overall advantage and has the most core competitiveness in the field of artificial intelligence. In the era of traditional computers and mobile phones, systems and chips are more cooperative, and chips are even more Take a dominant position. Specifically, for example, in the computer market, Intel completely dominates in the field of computing power and spans PCs and Apple’s MAC machines. On the system side, Windows and iOS each have their own merits and cannot replace each other, but their common Intel But it cannot be replaced. In the era of mobile phones, although the protagonist of computing has changed from Intel to Qualcomm, the chip is still at the core, and its importance and operating system are equally divided.
In the last 1-2 years, the situation has changed rapidly. Apple has released its own tactics to develop and produce MAC chips. Intel’s share price has been falling for a while. In the field of artificial intelligence, this trend is even more pronounced due to the different requirements of computing scenarios. Big, Google needs to develop mature chips according to their needs, and it is technically more feasible. If Intel wants to customize chips for different scenarios, it means that Intel will fully transfer to 2B, compared with the previous 2B2C model, pure 2B's business will obviously be more like that of Party B, and the complexity of the business line will increase dramatically. Historically, a company's shift from 2C to 2B is generally due to the loss of its core dominance in the industry and has to retreat. Seeking times.
Betting on Nervana NNP So, in the fierce competition, how does Intel further increase its chip business?
After Naveen Rao joined Intel, he became Intel's vice president and head of the AI Business Unit (AIPG) and led the launch of the Intel Nervana NNP series of chips. This time at AIDC, he proposed to provide developers with software tools. , Ecology. In the industry view, with Intel's technological capabilities, software tools and hardware are not a problem, but the ecology is yet to be discussed. In the PC era, the core of the ecology is the chip, so around Intel’s chip-building ecosystem, Intel can be entrenched, but In the age of artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence systems are the core of the ecosystem. Providing chips for computing power is part of the ecosystem. CPUs can provide computing power. GPUs can provide them. Intel can produce them. Nvidia can also produce it. Even Google, Apple itself. Can produce. Currently in the field of data science and deep learning computing, Intel's chip layout mainly Xeon (Xeon) chip series, Movidius' vision chip VPU, Nervana NNP series, and FPGA (field programmable gate array). The product lines correspond to several different subdivision application scenarios.
Nervana NNP series is a neural network processor. In the deep learning training and inference phase, Nervana NNP is mainly for the calculation of the training phase. According to Intel's plan, deep learning (hereinafter referred to as 'DL') will be implemented by 2020. ) The effect is 100 times better. This neural network processor was designed by Intel and Facebook together. It can be predicted that this chip will have a good support for Pytorch, Facebook's machine learning framework. After all, Facebook's Pytorch's ambitions. Certainly it is to compete with Google’s Tensorflow. However, the latest chips will be officially launched in 2019. How will the pattern of deep learning change unpredictably?
Naveen Rao wrote in his blog: 'We are developing the first commercial neural network processor product Intel Nervana NNP-L1000 (codenamed Spring Crest), planned to be released in 2019. Compared to the first generation of Lake Crest products, we Intel Nervana NNP-L1000 is expected to achieve 3-4 times the training performance. Intel Nervana NNP-L1000 will also support bfloat16, which is widely used in the industry for a numerical data format for neural networks. In the future, Intel will be in artificial intelligence. The product line expands support for bfloat16, including Intel Xeon processors and Intel FPGAs. 'In fact, the rumors of the Spring Crest launch at the end of 2018 already existed, but at present, the official announcement of this point in time in 2019 There is a delay. In response, Carey Kloss explained to reporters: 'Into more modern process nodes, we integrate more Die (silicon chips), can get faster processing speed. But it takes a certain amount of time to manufacture silicon wafers. It also takes time for the silicon chip to become a new neural network processor, which is the reason for the delay.
For the difference between the two generations of chips, he analyzed that: 'Lake Crest as the first generation of processors has achieved very good computational utilization on GEMM (matrix operations) and convolutional nerves. This is not just about 96% throughput. The amount of utilization, but in the absence of full customization, we have also achieved a computational utilization rate of more than 80% for GEMM in most cases. When we develop next-generation chips, if we can maintain high computing utilization Rate, the new product has a performance improvement of 3 to 4 times. '
Talking about competition, Carey Kloss said: 'I don't know what our competitors' roadmap is, but our response is relatively fast, so I don't think we will be at a disadvantage in neural network processing. For example, bfloat16 has been around for a while. Recently, it has become more popular. Many customers have asked for support for bfloat16. We have also gradually turned to support bfloat16. 'Comparing to Google's TPU, he thinks that the second generation of TPU is similar to Lake Crest. The third generation of TPU is similar to Spring. Crest.
Attack on all sides In addition to the highly regarded Nervana NNP, Intel's Xeon chips are targeted at servers and large computing devices. For example, China's supercomputers Tianhe No. 1 and No. 2 use Intel Xeon six-core processors.
In terms of visual chips, Intel's business volume has grown rapidly. Movidius VPU chips have long been used in the emerging hardware markets such as cars, drones, such as DJI UAVs, Tesla, and Google Clips cameras using Movidius. The visual chip.
Gary Brown, market leader at Movidius, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter: 'At Movidius, the chip we developed was called the visual processing unit VPU. VPU is a chip that combines both computer vision and a smart camera processor. So our chip There are three types of processing done: ISP processing, which is image signal processing, processing based on camera capture technology, and computer vision and deep learning.
He cited examples of specific use scenarios including VR products and robotics, smart homes, industrial cameras, AI cameras, and surveillance and security. Among them, 'monitoring and security is a huge market, especially in China, surveillance and security cameras The market is particularly large, and some large companies are developing surveillance cameras such as Hikvision and Dahua.
Gary Brown also mentioned that the smart home sector is currently growing rapidly. Although the market is small, it is developing rapidly. 'There are many companies developing smart devices such as smart home security, personal home help, smart doorbells, and apartment and home visits. Control. But in the home field, low cost, low energy consumption, long battery life, and very high precision are very challenging. Because outdoor shade, for example, moves, it may trigger a burglar alarm and is therefore very low. The false alarm rate is very important and should have good accuracy.
One of the company's challenges is how to continue to create high-performance chips, 'We have some strategies, such as using a front-end algorithm to reduce power consumption, so that we can turn off most of the chips, only a small part of the optimized face detection function When a face comes up, other chips will be activated. This will keep the facial monitoring system on at all times. We also have a lot of energy-saving algorithms to make the home smart camera last for about 6 months.' Gary Brown explained.
In addition, Altera is in charge of this line of FPGA. With the arrival of the 5G wave, the data analysis and computing requirements of the IoT Internet of Things will surge. The number of access nodes of the Internet of Things is at least tens of billions of scale, which is larger than the mobile phone scale. To be 1-2 orders of magnitude higher. The typical requirement of the Internet of Things is the need for flexible use of algorithmic changes. This is the strength of FPGAs. FPGAs can adapt to the needs of customized computing scenarios through their own structural changes, which also makes Intel in the future. It has become possible to provide efficient chips for more different types of devices. From the $16.7 billion acquisition amount, it can be seen that Intel’s purchase is obviously not just immediate value.
Fast-breaking enterprise-level scenarios According to a recent Intel survey, over 50% of U.S. enterprise customers are turning to existing cloud solutions based on Intel Xeon processors to meet their initial demand for artificial intelligence. Multiple Intel executives are In an interview, they all told reporters that there is no single solution for all artificial intelligence scenarios. Intel will match technologies and businesses according to customer needs. For example, Intel will configure Xeon and FPGA, or Xeon and Movidius, together. In order to achieve higher performance artificial intelligence function.
For Intel, these enhanced artificial intelligence capabilities will be widely used in enterprise-level scenarios. Naveen Rao said: 'We need to provide a comprehensive enterprise-class solution to accelerate the transition to artificial computing-driven computing in the future. This means that our solution provides the widest range of computing power and can support multiple architectures from milliwatts to kilowatts.
Carey Kloss further explained to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter the application scenario of the artificial intelligence chip: 'Spring Crest can be said to be the highest level of Nervana's neuron processor architecture. So its customers include super-large-scale computing centers and already have quite powerful data. Large companies with scientific work, governments, etc. If you need low-end and small models, Xeon can help you, it can open the data from the cloud to the end.
Specifically, Intel has also explored scenarios such as medical care, driverlessness, new retail, and the Internet of Things. For example, in the medical field, according to reports, Intel is working with Novartis to use deep neural networks to accelerate high content. Screening - This is a key element in early drug development. The cooperation between the two sides reduced the time needed to train the image analysis model from 11 hours to 31 minutes - efficiency increased by more than 20 times.
In terms of no-shops, Intel provided 'compute brain' to Jingdong unmanned convenience stores, and it has been deployed and deployed in multiple smart stores (Sinopec Express Store, Jingdong Home) and smart vending machines. Algorithmically, JD.com stated that the machine learning algorithms used by unmanned shops are mainly focused on knowledge, knowledge, and knowledge. In three directions, the need to use unstructured data, such as video, is converted into structural data due to the online and offline data communication. The popular CNN (convolutional neural network) algorithm in the field of machine vision, the traditional machine learning algorithms used in the intelligent supply chain, such as SVM, linear regression of statistics, logistic regression, etc. In the case of better network conditions Most of the video data can be completed in the cloud using a larger model. In the case of a poor network, through edge computing such as mobile, edge computing is done using a small network. The hardware used includes Intel's edge servers.
Despite Intel's strong enemies, the transition was very firm with its expansion. From the R&D value alone, according to IC Insights, the total R&D expenditure of the top 10 semiconductor manufacturers in 2017 was US$35.9 billion. Intel ranked first. According to the report, Intel’s R&D expenditure in 2017 was 13.1 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 36% of the Group’s total expenditure, which is about one-fifth of Intel’s sales in 2017. With huge investments from various companies, the battle of AI chips will also continue. Intensified. 21st Century Business Herald
3. The United States semiconductor industry is booming three passwords;
21st Century Business Herald 翟 Shaohui Shanghai Report
Although the US semiconductor industry has a major advantage that cannot be duplicated in other regions. The IC industry was born in the United States. Major technological breakthroughs and changes in the industry have also started in the United States. However, the U.S. gains and losses in the tech industry ecosystem, the role of government policies, and personnel training. Still worth exploring.
Editor's note
In the first three global commercial observations, we reviewed the current competitive landscape of the international semiconductor industry, analyzed the history of the development of the semiconductor industry in Europe, leading global Korea and Taiwan, and the current situation and gains and losses in Europe. The semiconductor industry, analyzing why the birthplace of the semiconductor industry can maintain the everlasting foundation of more than half a century, it has always maintained the world's leading support logic and password. At the same time, the famous 'traitor' culture and semiconductor giants of Silicon Valley Intel and AMD Love and hate stories also do a glimpse. (Li Yanxia)
A recent survey report from market research firm Strategy Analytics shows that in 2017, in the global baseband chip and smart phone application processor market, US semiconductor company Qualcomm accounted for 53% and 42% of the market share respectively, and continued to solidify the field. The dominance of Strategy Analytics believes that Qualcomm will continue to maintain its leading position in the market in 2019 and beyond in the transition from 4G to 5G.
Qualcomm’s strength is just one example of the leading position of the US semiconductor industry. The data from IC Insights, a semiconductor industry research organization, updated in May shows that with revenue as the standard, in the first quarter of 2018, the world’s top 15 semiconductor manufacturers (including wafer foundry) The United States holds 8 seats. In 2017, semiconductor manufacturers in North America together accounted for 49% of the global semiconductor market.
In addition, unlike other regions where manufacturers focus on different areas of subdivision or foundry business, US manufacturers can produce almost all types of semiconductor products, and have similar layouts in terms of equipment and materials. VLSI announced 2016 among the top ten semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the world. , Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA-Tencor and Teradyne are the top four companies in the United States, third, fifth and eighth respectively.
Although the US semiconductor industry has a major advantage that cannot be duplicated in other regions. The IC industry was born in the United States. Major technological breakthroughs and changes in the industry have also started in the United States. However, the United States has played a role in the ecology of science and technology industry, the role of government policies, and personnel training. The gains and losses are still worth exploring.
The rise of Silicon Valley and IC industry
When asked about the success factors of the U.S. integrated circuit industry, a U.S. semiconductor practitioner was somewhat confused: Integrated circuits were born in the United States, which made it extremely difficult to pinpoint the 'most important reason' for their success.
According to the reporter of the 21st Century Business Herald from the Director of the China Polyesters and Semiconductors Association (CASPA), the IC industry started in the United States. Following the simultaneous development of the US economy after the Second World War, it is necessary to take a holistic view of the success factors of the US semiconductor industry.
In 1947, William Shockley, the 'father of transistor', and two colleagues at Bell Labs made the first transistor, and the three shared the 1956 Nobel Prize for physics. Then, Shockley left. Bell Laboratories came to the Silicon Valley of today to establish the Shockley Lab. In the talented man who came to defect to Shockley, there were eight co-founders of Fairchild.
In 1957, eight people set off Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, and they were therefore snarled by Shockley as an 'eight traitors'. However, soon this name became the legend of Silicon Valley and even the US technology industry. 'Treason' entrepreneurial spirit Affected generations of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and scientists.
In 1958, Texas Instruments's Jack Kilby made the first integrated circuit, but failed to find the right silicon crystal. His device used helium. Fairchild Semiconductor soon achieved a breakthrough. Robert Noyce, one of the traitors, submitted a patent application for the manufacture of integrated circuits using silicon planar processes in 1959, and in March 1961 produced the first silicon-based integrated circuit. The curtain kicked off.
In 1968, Gordon Moore and Neuss, who finally left Fairchild in the 'Eight Rebels', also founded their own world-leading semiconductor company, Intel.
In 1971, Electronic News reporter Don Hoefler first published a series of reports on the computer chip company in the San Francisco Bay Area under the title "Silicon Valley." Silicon Valley was named after this. The 'silicon' word was derived from the IC industry in the area. Silicon raw materials used.
Economic and technological advantages support
Chris Taylor, director of market research firm Strategy Analytics RF and Wireless Component Services, pointed out to 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the strong economic foundation of the United States is one of the core advantages of its semiconductor industry. The US economy achieved strong growth in the 19th and 20th centuries. Encouraging investment in the technology industry while expanding employment.
The recently released Mary Mickler Internet Trends Report 2018 shows that in terms of market value, among the top ten technology companies in the world are Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Netflix and eBay+PayPal. Provides a complete ecosystem of terminal applications, brands and software for the US semiconductor industry.
Lin Jianhong, a research manager at Jibang Consulting and Industrial Research Institute, pointed out to 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the long-term accumulation of basic science and technology is one of the main factors that ensure that the US semiconductor industry has long occupied a leading position.
'Microsoft and Intel occupy the PC market. Google's Android and Apple's iOS lead the smart phone. On the manufacturing side, there are Intel and some powerful scientific research units that are driving the equipment and materials manufacturers, while the external funds are supporting Innovative environment. ' He said.
The Governor of the China-Canada Semiconductor Association (CASPA) also pointed out that many of the pioneers in the early development of the semiconductor industry in the United States were European immigrants of the first generation. 'After World War II, many very good scientists came to the United States to look for opportunities.' She said. 'Father of transistors' Shockley was born in England and moved to California.
In Lin Jianhong's view, the semiconductor industry is only a part of the science and technology industry. The United States has a perfect system of scientific research and innovation and attracts talents from all over the world. This is crucial for maintaining a leading position in the scientific research field.
Active government intervention: R&D support, policy guidelines
In the early days of the growth of the integrated circuit industry, the U.S. government has played an important role in it. As early as before World War II, the U.S. military had a tradition of funding scientific research for R&D in aircraft, radar, and nuclear industries.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) provides approximately US$7 billion in support each year to support basic physical science and mathematics research in universities. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds basic medical research. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) ) It provides support for companies with military potential research, such as computer networks and Internet projects. 'Taylor pointed out that the three institutions have played an important supporting role in the semiconductor industry base.
Nguyen Ying pointed out that the U.S. government’s most direct promotion of the semiconductor industry, in addition to providing financial support for R&D, also played an important buyer role. National defense and aerospace research provided a huge market and application scenario for the semiconductor industry.
Professor John Orton, a University of Nottingham professor, also pointed out in his book that during most of the time when the transistor was born, the industry survived with the support of the military, laying the foundation for the future IC industry.
With respect to policy guidelines, the U.S. government has only taken a number of actions in recent years. In 2015, the U.S. launched the Congress Semiconductor Seminar to specifically study semiconductor industry policies. Subsequently, the U.S. Congress Research Service Center and the President’s S&T Advisory Committee were successively in 2016. , In 2017, two guideline reports were issued on "U.S. Semiconductor Manufacturing: Industry Trends, International Competition and Federal Policy" and "Continuously Consolidating the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Leadership Position."
Sravan Kundojjala, deputy director of Research Analytics for mobile phone component technology, told 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the semiconductor industry has now become an industry that the US government has 'tightly protected'. In recent years, the U.S. government has blocked many foreign investor acquisitions. Attempt. The US government sees 5G and AI as the core areas of the semiconductor industry and wants to maintain its leadership.
In March 2018, CFIUS also urgently required Qualcom to postpone the shareholders’ meeting before the Qualcomm shareholders’ meeting to intervene in Broadcom’s hostile takeover of Qualcomm. A subsequent CFIUS letter showed that it was worried that the acquisition would weaken Qualcomm. As a result, Qualcomm loses its advantage at the crucial moment of the development of the 5G standard.
'However, almost all of the US semiconductor companies are currently in the global layout, and more importantly, they also have business contacts with China. 'Kundojjala said, 'Most of the U.S. companies' success depends more on successful products and marketing strategy. '
Frequent flow of talent, industry blossoms everywhere
Recalling the history of semiconductor companies in the United States, an interesting finding is that emerging companies are often able to rise rapidly and promote the semiconductor industry's progress in the field of technology. In John Orton's view, this is linked to another major feature of the US technology industry: Talent Frequent flow between different companies.
According to a survey released by the public welfare organization Endeavor in 2014, there are currently 92 U.S. listed companies with 'Sontong Gene', including Apple, Google, Oracle, Facebook, and Tesla. The technology companies also include Intel, AMD, Applied Materials, SanDisk, Nvidia and Xilinx and other important semiconductor manufacturers, as well as semiconductor equipment companies such as KLA-Tencor and Lam Research. Endeavor said that if out of the limitations of listed companies, traceable There are as many as 2,000 companies that have joined the eight Fairchild Co-founders.
Orton believes that the story of the 'eight renegades' determines a culture in which thousands of imitators ensure that professional knowledge and technology can quickly spread in the industry. This is very different from the relatively stable environment in Europe and Japan.
Emerging companies promote technological innovation is an important manifestation of the vitality of the semiconductor industry in the United States, this feature has been passed on. In the 1980s and 1990s, another group of emerging US manufacturers took advantage of the Fabless model and the information age (Internet and mobile networks Emerging) The advent of the wind, in the rapid rise of the United States for the semiconductor industry to open up a new territory, Qualcomm and British Weida is one of the most typical representatives.
'For us, the Fabless model has proved to be very successful. 'A spokesman for Qualcomm said in an interview with 21st Century Business Herald reporter on June 1. 'This allows us to not invest in equipment, etc. Flexible focus on more core, basic R&D aspects, and let manufacturers who are more willing and good at chip production engage in production.
Nowadays, in the field of 5G, AI, Internet of Things and other emerging frontier technologies, US manufacturers are still at the forefront. Kundojjala believes that many US semiconductor manufacturers, including Intel, Qualcomm, Nvidia, Broadcom, Micron, AMD and Xilinx, In this round of opportunities are actively laid out.
'For example, Nvidia's GPU manufacturer has refocused its business model mainly for individual customers into areas such as AI, autopilot and data center. 'He introduced, 'Qualcomm's leader in the baseband market, also Efforts are being made to extend its success on 4G to 5G, and to invest in AI, VR and AR related technologies.
'5G is opening a door for all other related industries.' A Qualcomm spokesperson said, 'In the past, mobile operators, mobile phone manufacturers, and semiconductor manufacturers have defined 3G and 4G capabilities. 5G is in need of many industries. Participate in, inform us of their needs, and define 5G functionality together.
However, although the United States is the closest country in the world with a full semiconductor industry chain, US companies are still absent in the field of lithography, and the main DRAM production plants are not in the United States. 'There is no single country with a complete supply chain.' Lin Jianhong said, 'The semiconductor industry has a high degree of professional division of labor, but it has highly centralized characteristics in all subsystems.'
In Taylor’s view, the talent pool is an important factor in maintaining the leading position of the US semiconductor industry. In particular, the United States emphasizes education in basic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. However, Henry pointed out that the United States currently faces a challenge at the talent level. : Compared with the semiconductor industry with a long training period, the emerging Internet, software and other fields seem to be more attractive both in the talent training period and the income level.
4. BASF: It has prepared for the Chinese chip industry to enter the process below 10nm;
Source: IT Times
Author: Wang Xin
In the recent days, the new electronic grade sulfuric acid plant of BASF Chemical Group, located in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, was formally put into operation, and the ultra-pure sulfuric acid produced by it will meet the needs of domestic chip manufacturers for process upgrades in the coming years. BASF Electronic Materials Business Unit Dr. Yanning Ning, vice president of Asia Pacific, told the IT Times reporter: 'The experience of BASF's cooperation with U.S., South Korea and other chip makers will be copied to China. The ultra-high purity chemical solution can fully comply with Chinese chip manufacturers' 10nm, Demand for 7nm, or even higher chip processing. 'According to news, the above-mentioned devices have not yet been completed. BASF starts the expansion project at the same time, and the capacity will be doubled after expansion. The expansion project is expected to be put into operation by the end of this year, producing a total of 24,000 tons of high purity annually. Electronic grade sulfuric acid, can meet a considerable part of the entire Chinese chip market demand.
'In the iPhone, Huawei P20 and other star smart phones, the mobile phone chip process has reached the level of 10nm, some of the BASF customers chip manufacturers already have a 7nm and 5nm process level. To achieve such a precise chip production process, it needs trillions One-tenth grade ultrapure purity chemicals. One trillionth of a trillion is like a drop of water in the volume ratio of 20 Olympic swimming pools. ' Yaning Yan said, 'In the manufacture of less than 10 nanometers number of nodes chip In the process, hundreds of cleaning processes are required. The sulfuric acid produced by BASF's Jiaxing plant has surpassed the fastest and best-performing semiconductor standards in terms of performance, and its quality and stability are second to none in the industry.
Consulting agency SEMI data shows that in 2017, the global wafer shipment amount has reached 400 billion US dollars, and China’s capital equipment spending growth rate will be much higher than the global average. BASF expects that in 2019, Chinese mainland chip manufacturers will Realize 14nm process technology, reach 7-10nm level in 2020, fast catch up with international top craftwork level.
Dou Wei, general manager of BASF China, revealed that the Jiaxing plant will supply chip makers in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xiamen, and other cities. At the same time, “the Yangtze River Delta is still the most demanding area for the Chinese chip industry. First, this is one of the main reasons why BASF chose Jiaxing.
According to another report, BASF is developing ultra-pure technology with one-trillionth of a higher purity. Yanning disclosed that in the labs of leading chip manufacturers collaborating with BASF, BASF has been able to provide full compliance requirements for 4nm processes. Ultrapure chemicals.
5. A 1,000-fold reduction in chip energy consumption will become the main research direction
With the integrated circuit technology reaching 7nm, whether the physical limit of the process technology will come, Moore's Law will come to an end, etc. It has become a hot topic of discussion in the industry, and has even attracted the attention of ordinary people.
In this regard, the University of California at Berkeley, inventor of FinFET, and Hu Zhengming, the highest technology award winner in the United States, proposed that the development of integrated circuit technology is far from over. Microelectronics can still do 100 years.
Then, will the integrated circuits continue to develop along the previous path? How to adjust? Will the pace of development slow down? A few days ago, 'Zeyi IC' was officially opened, and Professor Hu Zhengming attended the opening ceremony and accepted it. Interview with reporters.
The development path of integrated circuits does not necessarily mean that the line width should be smaller and smaller. Now that memory has been developed in three dimensions, of course, we hope to make it smaller, but we can also adopt other methods to promote integrated circuit technology. Development, such as reducing the energy consumption of the chip. The energy consumption of this chip can be reduced by a factor of 1,000. There is always a limit to the width of the line width. To some extent, there is no economic effect that drives people to continue this path. Going on. But we don't necessarily have to go all the way down to black, we can also convert a train of thought and it is also possible to achieve what we want to achieve.' Hu Zhengming said.
In fact, in terms of integrated circuits, the goal is not to reduce the line width, but to increase transistor density, enhance chip processing performance, reduce energy consumption, and reduce costs. In response, Hu Zhengming predicts that future chip costs will not Continue to decrease as before.
'Any kind of industrial technology has developed to a certain extent, the costs are not as continuous as the previous chip industry, and they are continuing to decrease exponentially. It is likely that the cost of the chip will no longer drop as fast as before, but At least do not increase the cost. ' Hu Zhengming said.
If costs cannot continue to decrease, then what are the economic factors that will drive people to advance Moore's Law? 'The old semiconductor market was technology-driven, and the development of technology created market demand. I think that demand will become more and more important in the future. The more important, it will become the main factor to promote the further development of the integrated circuit industry and technology. 'Hu Zhengming said to the reporter of China Electronics News.
From this point of view, there are so many fields in the world that need chips. With the development of intelligence, this demand will not be reduced. Since there is such a demand, integrated circuits will inevitably attract more investment and support integrated circuits. The research and development. There is such a need to drive that the development of integrated circuits for another 50 to 100 years is not a problem.' Hu Zhengming said.
As the IC industry development model shifts from technology-driven to market-driven, will IC industry development speed be as fast as before? In response, Hu Zhengming believes that in the past 20 years, the global semiconductor market has grown at an average annual rate. The rate is about 4.5%. This growth rate is not very fast. If you grow at this rate for 50 years is not a problem. 'Or in other words, the growth rate of the next 50, will not be lower than the growth of the past 20 years Speed.' Hu Zhengming told reporters at China Electronics News.
Talent is the key factor in maintaining the continuous development of the integrated circuit industry. Especially in recent years, China has achieved rapid development under the dual drive of policies and markets. However, it still faces a very serious talent gap. Focusing on the topic of talent cultivation, Hu Zhengming It is believed that talent cultivation is a long-term project that cannot be hurried. At the same time, Hu Zhengming believes that the development of schools' peripheral industries has a positive effect on school education.
Taking Silicon Valley as an example, Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley created a lot of technology industries, but these two universities also benefit from the development of the surrounding industries. School teachers and industry are closer and will have more full market trends. The understanding of the teaching can also be targeted in teaching, and it can also stimulate students' motivation for learning. At the same time, the research results of teachers will also receive the attention of the industry and make the industry more innovative. If there is no cooperation from the industry, the school It is also difficult to cultivate outstanding talents. Both industry and personnel training should go hand in hand at the same time.' Hu Zhengming told the China Electronics News reporter. China Electronics News