Opinionated - China Chipping Away to Semiconductor Dominance

[mike2000 is back]

Lol¸what can I say.

Beijing spent untold Billions on its projects to setup Chinese 12 inch fabs through "national programs," I think more than 10 of them already, and then there comes a private company from Guangzhou and say "We will have a profitable 70k WPM 12 inch fab in 1 year."

Lol so you mean government should encourage/support private enterprises(who are usually more innovative and efficient) invest in such high tech sectors than focusing on state owned/led companies who are usually less efficient?

 

[Paul2]

Lol so you mean government should encourage/support private enterprises(who are usually more innovative and efficient) invest in such high tech sectors than focusing on state owned/led companies who are usually less efficient?

The last thing Chinese industry needs is state guidance

 

[j20blackdragon]

According to western media several months ago, Huawei absolutely cannot make a phone without radio frequency (RF) components supplied by American companies. Huawei couldn't possibly integrate 20+ frequency bands in a small module.

Seems like no problem so far.

Huawei's latest smartphone sourced most of its components from domestic suppliers, including radio frequency (RF) components.

Full article here:
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1165293.shtml

I look forward to the upcoming teardown of the Huawei Mate 30 Pro. Should be interesting.

 

[Dungeness]

China ready for mass production of self-developed LCD screen
Source: Xinhua| 2019-09-18 21:55:05|Editor: ZX

HEFEI, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- China's first self-developed 8.5 generation TFT-LCD panel, or thin-film transistor liquid crystal display panel, rolled off the production line Wednesday in Bengbu, east China's Anhui Province, paving the way for mass production.

TFT-LCD is a key strategic material of the electronic information display industry. An 8.5 generation TFT-LCD panel, with a length of 2.5 meters and width of 2.2 meters, can produce six screens of 55 inches, according to its manufacturer, the Bengbu Glass Industry Design and Research Institute of the China National Building Material Group Co., Ltd.

The core technology of the high-definition LCD screen has long been monopolized by a few foreign enterprises.

China's optoelectronic display industry has developed rapidly in recent years and the country has become the world's largest manufacturing base for display terminals. Many Chinese TV panel manufacturers have established a number of 8.5 generation TFT-LCD production lines.

China's annual demand for 8.5 generation TFT-LCD or above has reached 380 million square meters. The mass production of the self-developed TFT-LCD screens will end the country's complete dependence on other countries for the technology and products, said its manufacturer.

A little confusion here, 8.5 gen and 10.5 gen TFT-LCD production lines in same month, at some city?

京东方合肥10.5代TFT—LCD生产线实现满产

 

[JSCh]

A little confusion here, 8.5 gen and 10.5 gen TFT-LCD production lines in same month, at some city?

京东方合肥10.5代TFT—LCD生产线实现满产

The gen is mostly related to the size of the panel, the 10.5 is bigger than the 8.5. The key word here is probably, self-developed and "end the country's complete dependence on other countries for the technology and products".

And also from the following article back in June,

The institute in Bengbu, with 60 years of expertise in glass, has finally made a breakthrough in the production of Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD, and will provide key raw material guarantee for China's LCD panel industry after it goes into mass production in September, the report said.
​

China makes breakthrough in high-definition LCD screen production
By Chen Liubing | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2019-06-20 14:08

Launch ceremony of China's first Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD production line in Bengbu, East China's Anhui province, on June 18, 2019. [Photo/stdaily.com]
China's first 8.5-generation TFT-LCD production line was launched in Bengbu, East China's Anhui province, on June 18, 2019, representing a breakthrough in the production of high-definition LCD screen, Science and Technology Daily reported.

TFT-LCD, or Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display, is key strategic material of the electronic information display industry. The Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD production line, launched by the Bengbu Glass Industry Design and Research Institute of the China National Building Material Group, will produce high-definition LCD screens of 55 inches, the report said.

According to the Liquid Crystal Branch of the China Optics and Optoelectronics Manufactures Association, the demand for TFT-LCD in the Chinese mainland was about 260 million square meters in 2018, including 233 million square meters' Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD. However, the annual supply of domestically made TFT-LCD is less than 40 million square meters, with all of them Gen 6 or below, which cannot meet the demand in scale and quantity.

The association predicted that China's market demand for Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD or above will exceed 300 million square meters by 2020, accounting for 49.6 percent of the total global demand.

The production and control precision of Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD is comparable to that of the semiconductor industry, representing a higher level of large-scale manufacturing of modern glass industry.

Core technology of the Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD has long been controlled by enterprises in the United States and Japan, said the report.

The institute in Bengbu, with 60 years of expertise in glass, has finally made a breakthrough in the production of Gen 8.5 TFT-LCD, and will provide key raw material guarantee for China's LCD panel industry after it goes into mass production in September, the report said.

 

[Nan Yang]

Lol so you mean government should encourage/support private enterprises(who are usually more innovative and efficient) invest in such high tech sectors than focusing on state owned/led companies who are usually less efficient?

Government should always control the corporations. Not the other way round like the United States.

 

[JSCh]

Chinese firm begins mass production of first homegrown DRAM chip · TechNode
SEP 23, 2019
|IN TURF WARS, WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS |BY WEI SHENG

A Chinese state-backed semiconductor startup said it has started mass production of the country’s first locally designed dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chip, China Securities Journal reported on Monday.

Why it matters: The move marks a major step for China’s push for complete self-reliance in semiconductors amid an ongoing trade war with the United States, but experts are skeptical about whether homegrown players can challenge memory chip giants such as Samsung and Micron in the $100 billion-per-year market.

• DRAM chips are widely used for storage in personal computers, servers, and mobile devices.
• The global DRAM chip market was worth some $99.65 billion in 2018 and is dominated by South Korea’s Samsung, which held 42.7% of the market in the first quarter. SK Hynix held 29.9% and US firm Micron 23.0% share of the market during the same time period, according to data from market researcher Trendforce.
• In an effort to boost the country’s semiconductor industry, the Chinese government will encourage domestic companies to use locally designed DRAM chips, Stewart Randall, head of electronics and embedded software of Shanghai-based consultancy Intralink, told TechNode on Monday.
• Locally designed and produced DRAM chips may sell well in the Chinese market, but face obstacles in the overseas market because their technology still lags foreign competitors, Randall said.

Details: Changxin Memory Technology, a semiconductor startup founded in 2016 in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, has started to mass produce its own DRAM chips, the company’s chairman and CEO Zhu Yiming said Friday at the World Manufacturing Convention in the city.

• The company has invested around RMB 150 billion (around $21.1 billion) in the chip project, including $2.5 billion spent on research and development, as well as capital facilities, according to Zhu.
• The company calls its new memory the 10-nanometer class, where circuits are 10nm to 19 nm wide. The DRAM chip is 18nm, while those from foreign competitors fall between 12nm and 16 nm.
• The company said it has forecasted production capacity of 120,000 wafers per month in the initial phase, and expects to deliver them by the end of this year.

Context: Changxin is widely seen as the next potential target for Washington’s campaign to block Chinese firms’ access to crucial American technology, Nikkei Asian Review reported in June.

• The company has taken extra steps to avoid infringing on US patents, said Nikkei, citing sources familiar with the matter.
• The US has already blocked Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, another Chinese state-backed semiconductor manufacturer, from buying American components in October on the grounds of national security.

 

[Paul2]

Chinese firm begins mass production of first homegrown DRAM chip · TechNode
SEP 23, 2019
|IN TURF WARS, WITH CHINESE CHARACTERISTICS |BY WEI SHENG

A Chinese state-backed semiconductor startup said it has started mass production of the country’s first locally designed dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chip, China Securities Journal reported on Monday.

Why it matters: The move marks a major step for China’s push for complete self-reliance in semiconductors amid an ongoing trade war with the United States, but experts are skeptical about whether homegrown players can challenge memory chip giants such as Samsung and Micron in the $100 billion-per-year market.

• DRAM chips are widely used for storage in personal computers, servers, and mobile devices.
• The global DRAM chip market was worth some $99.65 billion in 2018 and is dominated by South Korea’s Samsung, which held 42.7% of the market in the first quarter. SK Hynix held 29.9% and US firm Micron 23.0% share of the market during the same time period, according to data from market researcher Trendforce.
• In an effort to boost the country’s semiconductor industry, the Chinese government will encourage domestic companies to use locally designed DRAM chips, Stewart Randall, head of electronics and embedded software of Shanghai-based consultancy Intralink, told TechNode on Monday.
• Locally designed and produced DRAM chips may sell well in the Chinese market, but face obstacles in the overseas market because their technology still lags foreign competitors, Randall said.

Details: Changxin Memory Technology, a semiconductor startup founded in 2016 in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, has started to mass produce its own DRAM chips, the company’s chairman and CEO Zhu Yiming said Friday at the World Manufacturing Convention in the city.

• The company has invested around RMB 150 billion (around $21.1 billion) in the chip project, including $2.5 billion spent on research and development, as well as capital facilities, according to Zhu.
• The company calls its new memory the 10-nanometer class, where circuits are 10nm to 19 nm wide. The DRAM chip is 18nm, while those from foreign competitors fall between 12nm and 16 nm.
• The company said it has forecasted production capacity of 120,000 wafers per month in the initial phase, and expects to deliver them by the end of this year.

Context: Changxin is widely seen as the next potential target for Washington’s campaign to block Chinese firms’ access to crucial American technology, Nikkei Asian Review reported in June.

• The company has taken extra steps to avoid infringing on US patents, said Nikkei, citing sources familiar with the matter.
• The US has already blocked Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit, another Chinese state-backed semiconductor manufacturer, from buying American components in October on the grounds of national security.

Good timing, after years of delays, and billions of state handouts. Now it will be good if they can catch up to even 3rd tier memory maker, in times when memory prices hit the bottom

 

[JSCh]

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 / 11:27 AM / UPDATED 29 MINUTES AGO
Alibaba unveils self-developed AI chip for cloud computing services - Reuters
Josh Horwitz

HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd said on Wednesday it has developed a new chip that specializes in machine-learning tasks and which will be used to enhance services for its cloud computing division.

Called Hanguang 800, the company’s first self-developed AI chip is currently being used within Alibaba to power product search, automatic translation, and personalized recommendations on the e-commerce giant’s web sites.

“The launch of Hanguang 800 is an important step in our pursuit of next-generation technologies, boosting computing capabilities that will drive both our current and emerging businesses while improving energy-efficiency,” Alibaba CTO Jeff Zhang said in a statement.

Alibaba has no immediate plans to sell the chip as a standalone commercial product, a company spokeswoman said.

Overseas tech giants such as Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc are also developing their own custom chips, aiming to improve the performance of specialized AI tasks at company-operated data centers.

The chip was developed by DAMO Academy, a research institute Alibaba launched in late 2017, and T-Head, the company’s specialized semiconductor division.

Alibaba’s foray into the chip sector comes amid efforts by Beijing to promote China’s semiconductor industry and reduce the country’s reliance on foreign imports of core technologies.

Alibaba also released its first core processor IP in July based on RISC-V open-source chip architecture. RISC-V gives firms a potential alternative to the dominant architecture of Britain’s Arm Holdings Inc. Arm, a unit of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, charges licensing fees for its use.

In cloud computing, Alibaba towers over rivals in China, commanding 47% of the market for cloud infrastructure services in the first quarter of 2019, according to research firm Canalys.

Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Edwina Gibbs

 

[Mohrenn]

Good timing, after years of delays, and billions of state handouts. Now it will be good if they can catch up to even 3rd tier memory maker, in times when memory prices hit the bottom

Paul why are you such a moron

 

[j20blackdragon]

Chip Makers May Lose Huawei Business Even After Ban Ends, Says Analyst
By Tae Kim
Sept. 26, 2019

Skyworks Solutions and Qorvo may permanently lose chip business with Huawei Technologies, Susquehanna Financial Group believes.

The two chip makers make radio-frequency semiconductors, which enable smartphones to communicate with wireless networks. Huawei is one of the biggest producers of smartphones and telecommunications infrastructure in the world, but in May, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that put the company on an export blacklist due to national-security concerns.

That move required technology companies to apply for licenses to sell to the Chinese company.

“After discussions with Huawei, we believe the company has found alternatives to most U.S. RF solutions,” Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland wrote on Thursday. “Additionally, even if the ban was lifted today, volumes are unlikely to return to pre-ban levels.”

Qorvo (ticker: QRVO) and Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Rolland said Huawei plans to use suppliers from Taiwan, Japan and China, instead of using U.S. chips, for future products, given what happened with the ban this year.

The analyst reaffirmed his Neutral ratings for both Skyworks and Qorvo shares. He lowered his target for Skyworks’ stock price to $74 from $78 and cut his forecast for Qorvo shares to $70 from $74.

On Thursday, Qorvo shares were down 1.2% to $76.01, while Skyworks fell 0.6% to $80.54. The S&P 500 was 0.7% lower.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/chip-makers-quorvo-skyworks-huawei-ban-trump-ban-51569513112

 

[Pakistan Space Agency]

The last thing Chinese industry needs is state guidance

The state appears to has done very well for the country, making it the second largest economy on the planet in such a short period of time simply by ignoring whatever West was preaching to them.

 

[Paul2]

Chip Makers May Lose Huawei Business Even After Ban Ends, Says Analyst
By Tae Kim
Sept. 26, 2019

Skyworks Solutions and Qorvo may permanently lose chip business with Huawei Technologies, Susquehanna Financial Group believes.

The two chip makers make radio-frequency semiconductors, which enable smartphones to communicate with wireless networks. Huawei is one of the biggest producers of smartphones and telecommunications infrastructure in the world, but in May, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that put the company on an export blacklist due to national-security concerns.

That move required technology companies to apply for licenses to sell to the Chinese company.

“After discussions with Huawei, we believe the company has found alternatives to most U.S. RF solutions,” Susquehanna analyst Christopher Rolland wrote on Thursday. “Additionally, even if the ban was lifted today, volumes are unlikely to return to pre-ban levels.”

Qorvo (ticker: QRVO) and Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Rolland said Huawei plans to use suppliers from Taiwan, Japan and China, instead of using U.S. chips, for future products, given what happened with the ban this year.

The analyst reaffirmed his Neutral ratings for both Skyworks and Qorvo shares. He lowered his target for Skyworks’ stock price to $74 from $78 and cut his forecast for Qorvo shares to $70 from $74.

On Thursday, Qorvo shares were down 1.2% to $76.01, while Skyworks fell 0.6% to $80.54. The S&P 500 was 0.7% lower.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/chip-makers-quorvo-skyworks-huawei-ban-trump-ban-51569513112

Obviously, it was the best day for domestic RF parts makers. Even if their stuff sucks, no phone maker now would risk being given same treatment as Huawei.

Also a big lesson to American wannabe Chinese companies. I know a few companies on my memory which are de-facto Chinese, but who nevertheless chose to operate from America. Those have bad times now too. All their clients are in China, their operations are in China, nothing besides a nominal head office in US makes them American, but they they loose clients left and right.

There used to be an American company making mp3 decoders and other chips for mp3 player chips called Sigmatel. It was notorious for patent lawsuits against mp3 player makers using competitor products, effectively a legal racketeering.

What has happened to it? It went out of business because factories in China no longer stocked overpriced Sigmatel chips, and thus nobody was making OEM MP3 players on them for Western brands using Sigmatel. Sigmatel totally lost. They were free to milk own clients for patent dues, Qualcomm style, but there were simply nobody left for them to milk!

A lot of factories and OEMs who did Sigmatel based players in China, also made players on cheaper Chinese chipsets too. So it was a complete nobrainer for factory owners to drop Sigmatel based models when their income suffered, or just because they took it as a personal attack. Ron Edgerton completely miscalculated that. I have zero idea how that guy managed to get a new job after that.

 

[JSCh]

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 / 11:27 AM / UPDATED 29 MINUTES AGO
Alibaba unveils self-developed AI chip for cloud computing services - Reuters
Josh Horwitz

HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd said on Wednesday it has developed a new chip that specializes in machine-learning tasks and which will be used to enhance services for its cloud computing division.

Called Hanguang 800, the company’s first self-developed AI chip is currently being used within Alibaba to power product search, automatic translation, and personalized recommendations on the e-commerce giant’s web sites.

“The launch of Hanguang 800 is an important step in our pursuit of next-generation technologies, boosting computing capabilities that will drive both our current and emerging businesses while improving energy-efficiency,” Alibaba CTO Jeff Zhang said in a statement.

Alibaba has no immediate plans to sell the chip as a standalone commercial product, a company spokeswoman said.

Overseas tech giants such as Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc are also developing their own custom chips, aiming to improve the performance of specialized AI tasks at company-operated data centers.

The chip was developed by DAMO Academy, a research institute Alibaba launched in late 2017, and T-Head, the company’s specialized semiconductor division.

Alibaba’s foray into the chip sector comes amid efforts by Beijing to promote China’s semiconductor industry and reduce the country’s reliance on foreign imports of core technologies.

Alibaba also released its first core processor IP in July based on RISC-V open-source chip architecture. RISC-V gives firms a potential alternative to the dominant architecture of Britain’s Arm Holdings Inc. Arm, a unit of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, charges licensing fees for its use.

In cloud computing, Alibaba towers over rivals in China, commanding 47% of the market for cloud infrastructure services in the first quarter of 2019, according to research firm Canalys.

Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Edwina Gibbs

 

[j20blackdragon]

good for gaming, but what i am interested in is the deep learning support for Chinese GPUs. will there be any?