Zaram Technology will develop a neural network processing (NPU) based artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor by next year. It is anticipated to have a lot of application in the Internet of Things (IoT) field since it is able to rapidly calculate large amounts of data. The company is also expanding its flagship product, the 5th generation (5G) communication semiconductor stick business.
Zaram Technology is a system semiconductor fabless company founded in 2000. It produces optical transceivers that convert signals from optical to electrical, semiconductor chips for high-pass terminals, and communication equipment.
In 2017, Zaram Technology entered the communication semiconductor market. It commercialized a semiconductor system-on-chip (SoC) for 5G communication for the first time in Korea. It also released a product that combines a communication semiconductor and an optical transceiver in the form of a stick. It processes information at a speed of 10Gbps and consumes only 0.9W, which is not even half the international standard (2W). The product was installed in the Rakuten 5G network in Japan.
Zaram Technology expects sales of semiconductor chips and stick products for 5G communication to increase as 5G high-speed communication networks are being built around the world.
Zaram Technology is applying its semiconductor design technology to high-performance semiconductors. It is developing next-generation AI semiconductors with the Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI) with the hope of completing it by next year. NPUs mounted on a CCTV camera will do calculations, which allows to increase processing speed by not sending large amounts of data to the server. Zaram Technology's open source design platform RISC-V-based intellectual property (IP) are used for AI semiconductors. It also secured semiconductor IP for wearable devices.
Zaram Technology is promoting an IPO on the KOSDAQ this month. The company will shorten the duration of the development of next-generation products by using the raised public offering funds for research and development (R&D) and facility investment. Zaram Technology also conducts sales activities to secure overseas customers.
Joon-hyun Baek, CEO of Zaram Technology, said, “Establishing 5G is necessary as a core infrastructure, not just a communication service, in order for the 4th industrial convergence service to come to life. We will establish ourselves as a next-generation communication semiconductor company that leads the global communication market with Korean technology.”
By Staff Reporter Yoon-sub Song (sys@etnews.com)