Korea System Semiconductor Gathering, which was established last year, will make a fresh start under a new name “Korea System Semiconductor Forum”. Korea Semiconductor Industry Association (KSIA) will also provide support to the forum. The forum’s goal is to have South Korean system semiconductor companies work together and train future talents and secure technical competitiveness that have been the two chronic issues of the industry.
Korea System Semiconductor Gathering held a general meeting at the KSIA’s conference room in Pangyo on Wednesday and announced that it would change its name to Korea System Semiconductor Forum.
The forum combines Korea System Semiconductor Gathering that was established last year by 63 South Korean and foreign system semiconductor companies and a fabless gathering called “System – Semiconductor Forum” that was ran by the KSIA. CEO Lee Seo-kyu of PIXELPLUS will hold the chairman position of the forum.
The group was formed last year in order to represent the system semiconductor industry that was put on poor circumstances. Not only chip design, intellectual property (IP), and design solution companies participated to form the group, but the process also involved global IP companies such as ARM.
While system semiconductor companies dealt with situations individually or voiced their opinions under the association’s guidance in the past, the group has allowed companies to work together and actively search for ways to promote the ecosystem for system semiconductor. Also, because the group is combined with the KSIA’s System – Semiconductor Forum, the association is expected to provide strong support for a variety of activities from the side.
Not only is the forum going to play a “speaker” role that informs poor infrastructures and a variety of difficulties that the system semiconductor ecosystem is facing to the outside world, it will also work on strengthening the ecosystem by making a variety of social contributions and through other ways.
The fact that the group announced that it would step out of its office and actively engage in meetings to solve an issue of lack of manpower that has been ongoing is also drawing people’s eyes.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s data, South Korea only produces 300 top talents in chip design every year and it has been a huge obstacle for development of system semiconductor technologies.
The forum is expected to hold lectures on system semiconductor for college and graduate students and donate a variety of scholarships as well. It also plans to work with the academic circle and hold events to attract talented individuals and fill the pool of talented individuals for the system semiconductor industry that has been depleted for a long time.
It also plans to be active in holding events to exchange technologies. A breakfast forum seminar that the KISA has been holding is expected to be hold every quarter. The forum will also look actively hold events to have exchanges with science institutions such as the Institute of Semiconductor Engineers and a variety of IT device manufacturers.
Wang Seong-ho (CEO of Nemesis), who is the secretary general of the forum, said that the forum will be very active in having South Korean system semiconductor companies have exchanges on a horizontal level and strengthen the industry’s competitive edge and making contributions towards development of the system semiconductor industry’s ecosystem and that the forum’s goal is to have more than 100 members in the future.
Staff Reporter Kang, Hyeryung | kang@etnews.com