An AI semiconductor platform community will share artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor development achievements, and advance technology and operate a market to a network of industry, academia, and research institutes. The goal is to activate the industrial ecosystem by discovering and spreading AI semiconductor supply and demand.
The AI semiconductor platform community recently organized an operating committee and started full-fledged activities. The AI semiconductor platform Community is an industry-academia-research human network and platform that was created in last April with the Ministry of Science and ICT's 'Development of an Open Development Environment Platform for AI Semiconductor Development' business task agreement.
SK Hynix, Telechips, AD Technology, LG Electronics, Next Chip, Sapeon Korea, Future Design, and Huins in the industry, and Soongsil University, Korea Aerospace University, Kookmin University, Yonsei University, Korea University, and Daegu University in academia will participate. Public institutions such as Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Korea Electronics Technology Institute (KETI), National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA), and Institute for Information and Communication Technology Planning and Evaluation (IITP), as well as the Semiconductor Engineering Society and the Next-Generation Intelligent Semiconductor Project Group will also participate. The Institute of Semiconductor Engineers will be responsible for community support, which was established in 2019. Jang-kyu Lee, CEO of Telechips, will be served as the organizing committee chair.
The community was established in order to overcome an environment where it is difficult for individual companies or institutions to independently develop AI semiconductors. The goal is to share and expand AI semiconductor research achievements by operating industry-academia-institute networks in the form of a ‘platform'. Various AI semiconductor-related government tasks or projects have been promoted in the industry; however, it was pointed out that there are limits to utilizing them. The community plans to contribute to the development of additional technologies and market creation while sharing the achievements of the AI semiconductor business by operating an open platform.
The community develops a platform for the development, utilization, and application of domestic AI semiconductors such as neural network processing units (NPUs). It has currently established a 'version 1' type platform. Each year, it plans to upgrade the platform by updating the version. Supply and demand networks such as AI semiconductor development groups and user groups can be utilized on the platform. It will discover markets to spread AI semiconductor research results, and support the creation of related industrial ecosystems. It is anticipated that various developers such as △AI semiconductor design assets (IP) and chips △NPU chip equipped boards and system developers △Software (SW) that will utilize NPU functions will participate in the platform in the future,. The community plans to build a platform that can participate in the entire semiconductor development cycle from AI semiconductor design to manufacturing process.
Starting discovering AI semiconductor developers next year, the community starting with the formation of a steering committee. It plans to seek ways to utilize AI semiconductor performance in 2024, and it plans to discover and support AI semiconductor application fields in 2025. Community operating committee members such as SK Telecom, Naver, Kakao, and Hyundai Mobis will be added to expand the organization.
Jang-kyu Lee, CEO of Telechips (Chairman of the operating Committee), said, “We plan to create an ecosystem that can create, share, and utilize development methodologies with various AI semiconductor business results. We will create an environment in which domestic AI semiconductor development capabilities can be enhanced and spread through this commitee.”
By Staff Reporter Dong-joon Kwon (djkwon@etnews.com)