Phison Electronics Corp (群聯電子), a designer of NAND flash memory controllers and modules, plans to launch its first controller that uses artificial intelligence (AI) for its next-generation solid-state drive (SSD) next year.
The Hsinchu-based company is joining the ranks of its global semiconductor peers in exploring AI business opportunities to embrace the arrival of the Internet of Things era and the challenge it poses of processing massive amounts of data.
“Nowadays, people receive tons of information from the Internet and social media, like Google or Facebook, that need to be sorted and analyzed, sometimes instantly,” Phison founding chairman Pua Khein-seng (潘健成) said on Tuesday on the sidelines of a news conference for the launch of an AI and robotics lab in Hsinchu.
Photo: Lisa Wang, Taipei Times
“We hope to incorporate AI technology into our products and use it to deal with the complicated job of big-data sorting and analysis. As data traffic is doubling every year, it is increasingly impossible for people’s brains to do the job,” Pua said.
Using AI and machine learning, the company aims to create more “smart” controllers that enable faster data reading and writing speeds than regular SSD controllers, in addition to fixing errors and lowering the error rate, Pua said.
The company has completed the design of it first SSD controller with AI and machine learning, it said, adding that it is set to enter mass production next year.
Since the company’s establishment in 2000, Phison has focused on designing controllers, so it is short of AI engineers and experts to support the expansion, Pua said.
To fill the talent gap and enhance its technological capabilities, Phison is partnering with National Chiao Tung University to launch an AI lab that will develop cutting-edge technologies such as deep reinforcement learning for digital signal processors, he said.
The technology will help develop a new SSD controller that can enable self-repair, accelerate the drive’s reading and writing speeds, and help extend the drive’s lifetime, the company said.
The company has helped raise an initial NT$15 million (US$496,837) for the lab.
“Customer demand in the fourth quarter will be much stronger than in the third quarter. The fourth quarter is the peak season for mobile phone and consumer electronic devices,” Pua said. “The only problem is whether we can source enough flash memory chips [to meet demand]... Supply looks very tight.”
A notification from the world’s major suppliers of NAND flash memory chips, including Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc, that prices will be hiked from 15 to 22 percent for this quarter signals strong seasonality next quarter, Phison said.
Therefore, the company expects high demand that will help trigger a rebound in revenue and profit next quarter.
Phison’s net profit for last month declined 17 percent to NT$503 million from NT$604 million in the same period last year, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Thursday.
However, cumulative net profit for the first two months of this quarter totaled NT$1.07 billion, up about 3 percent from NT$1.04 billion during the period last year, with earnings per share increasing to NT$5.45 from NT$5, the filing said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS