China is developing new computer processor “chiplets,” smaller and more modular than traditional designs, as a core part of its strategy to compete with the U.S. in technology, Reuters reported on Thursday. .
In one case, former U.S. intellectual property from Silicon Valley startup zGlue began appearing in chiplet designs from Chinese tech firm Chipuller, which acquired the U.S. company in 2021. according to to Reuters. China and the United States are seeking retaliation, with the United States using intellectual property and China using its access to minerals and other raw materials to disadvantage each other’s technological prowess, particularly in the area of artificial intelligence. are waging a trade war. Materials needed to make computer chips. (Related: Tensions between US and China will rise further as both countries enter AI arms race, expert says)
Despite the U.S. dominance in other areas of computer technology, “the U.S.-China race is at the same starting line,” Chipler Chairman Yang Meng told Reuters. “In the rest (chip technology), there is a considerable gap between China and the United States, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.”
A demo chip made with Chiplets by Silicon Valley startup zGlue is seen in this photo taken July 7, 2023 in Richmond, California, USA. All of zGlue’s patents were assigned to a Chinese startup called Chipuller after zGlue was in financial trouble. Reuters/Carlos Barrier)
Chiplets are unique compared to traditional processors in that they focus on one particular computational task rather than encompassing an entire “system”, allowing users to design machines for specific purposes. increase. according to to IBM. Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, has already developed a system for clients to design products using chiplets as building blocks. according to to the Wall Street Journal.
“The future of semiconductors is largely packaging and chiplets,” IBM research director Dario Gill told the WSJ. “It’s much more powerful than designing a large chip from scratch.”
Chinese giants such as Huawei, which is well known in the United States for spying on behalf of the Chinese government, have plans to develop new chiplet-based devices, along with China’s military and public universities. Reuters reported that the announcement was made. Huawei alone has filed more than 900 chiplet-based patents in 2022, up 3,000% from the 30 it filed in 2017.
Chinese companies will spend $3.3 billion on chiplet packaging equipment in 2021, nearly double the record $1.7 billion set in 2018, according to Reuters. That number will drop to $2.3 billion in 2022, still comfortably above the 2018 record, even as a slowing chip market drags down sales.
“Chiplets have a very special meaning for China given the restrictions on wafer-fabrication equipment,” Charles Shi, a chip analyst at brokerage Needham, told Reuters. “It is possible to develop 3D stacking and other chiplet technologies to get around these limitations.
Yang described Chiplet as the “core driving force” of China’s domestic chip-making industry, according to Reuters.
“It is our mission and obligation to bring it back to China,” Yang said. When Chipuller acquired his zGlue, he acquired outright all of his 28 chiplet patents owned by this American start-up.
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