Heated competition of ‘AI semiconductor’… LG Electronics unveil SoC·MCU

Participating AICAS 2022, unveils their roadmap
Installed on home appliances in the second half…Accelerating commercialization
Samsung·SK 'PIM' battling with development·demonstration
Expanding t

<AICAS 2022, an international artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor technology academic conference, was held on the 14th at Songdo Convensia, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon. The latest technologies from major domestic companies were exhibited as competition in the AI semiconductor market is accelerating. At the LG Electronics booth, a researcher is introducing an 'AI chip' that can be installed in home appliances to efficiently control motors and compressors and operate in them in an optimized state. By Staff Reporter Min-su Kim (mskim@etnews.com)>

LG Electronics will apply their in-house developed artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor chip to all household appliances from the second half of this year. AI semiconductor market was dominated by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix and LG Electronics joined the battle. AI semiconductor startups are also preparing to enter the market, and the related ecosystem is expected to expand.

LG Electronics demonstrated their own developed AI system-on-chip (SoC) 'LG 8111' and microcontroller unit (MCU) 'LG8211' and released a product application roadmap at the '2022 International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Circuits and Systems' (AICAS 2022) held at Songdo Convensia, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon on the 14th. At the end of this year, it will be applied to the 'UP home appliance' line which focuses on product function improvement. LG has brought out AI semiconductor chips as a key means to show their focuses on improving customer experience. LG8111 and LG8211 will be unlike AI chips applied only to existing TV, but will be general-purpose chips that can be used in robot vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and refrigerators. The overall design and development were handled by the SIC Center within the CTO division. It will be mass-produced using the TSMC 28 nanometer process. It is known that they have been working closely with LG Electronics' H&A division to apply AI semiconductor chips to home appliances.

An official from LG Electronics SIC Center said, "With our excellent video·audio processing and control capabilities, it will lead to the advancement of performance that could not be experienced with existing home appliances. It will not be only used in home appliances, but also can be utilized in smart automobiles and smart factory, which can expand the base of the market.”

LG Electronics' AI semiconductor strategy is differentiated from competitors that develop AI semiconductors for high-performance computing (HPC) such as data centers. This is because the they have increased the speed of commercialization by installing AI chips directly into their home appliances. For this reason, it is evaluated that it is highly practical. As LG Electronics enters the AI semiconductor market in earnest, competition is expected to intensify.

At the event, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix each demonstrated the industry's first 'Process in Memory' (PIM). PIM is an intelligent semiconductor that converges an AI processor with capability of calculation in memory. This was the first time that the two companies have demonstrated together in South Korea. Samsung Electronics developed PIM based on high bandwidth memory (HBM) and SK hynix based on GDDR6 memory.

Domestic AI semiconductor startups also mobilized which are about to hit the market. DEEPX demonstrated the ‘DEEPX Series’ of neural network processing unit (NPU), which will be released in order from the second half of this year. It can perform various AI algorithm operation processing such as deep learning-based object recognition, face recognition, voice recognition, and image quality improvement. Currently, it is in the proof-of-concept (PoC) stage with about 20 customers. ‘SAPEON’, SK group's AI semiconductor start-up, which has recently secured successive supply cases in the broadcasting equipment market, also showed off the performance of their own AI accelerator. In addition, not only AI semiconductor companies that are about to be commercialized, such as Furiosa AI and Mobilint but also AI-related semiconductor intellectual property (IP) companies such as OPENEDGES and AiM Future participated.

Hyuk-jae Lee, dean of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University and general co-chair of AICAS 2022, said, “By hosting AICAS Korea, it will be an opportunity to introduce domestic AI technology to the world. We hope that an ecosystem will be established to expand and promote businesses such as commercialization for AI semiconductor start-up other than large corporations like Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, and LG Electronics.”

[LG Electronics AI Semiconductor 'On-Device AI SoC Solution' Overview]

By Staff Reporter Dong-jun Kwon djkwon@etnews.com