NXP Semiconductors and Hon Hai Technology Group (鴻海科技集團), known internationally as Foxconn (富士康), yesterday jointly launched a laboratory in Taoyuan County’s Nankan District (南崁), deepening their strategic collaboration in bringing software-defined electric vehicles (SDEV) to the market faster.
The lab aims to accelerate Hon Hai’s efforts in software-defined electric vehicles, leveraging NXP’s comprehensive electrification portfolio and cross-vehicle system solutions using the S32G and S32K3 families for domain and zonal controllers targeting service-oriented gateways, vehicle networking and safe vehicle control, NXP said in a statement.
The collaborative lab brings together more than 200 engineers based locally and abroad from Hon Hai and NXP, the statement said.
Photo courtesy of NXP Semiconductors
The lab is to be the primary location for innovation, discussion, training and enabling new applications, it said. The equipment for the first-phase operation has been moved in the lab, it said.
“The lab will accelerate the progress of electric, software-defined vehicles from talk to reality. The auto industry has to become faster and more efficient, and NXP is pleased to extend its system solutions portfolio to enable electrification, next-generation architectures, smart and secure car access systems, and more,” NXP Semiconductors Taiwan senior sales director Elton Tsang (臧益群) said in the statement.
Demonstrating their partnerships in automotive electrification, Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進), an EV designing and manufacturing arm of Hon Hai, showcased its latest EV, the Model B, during NXP’s annual technology forum in Taipei on Tuesday, ahead of the vehicle’s commercialization next year. The Model B is equipped with NXP’s S32G and S32K3 solutions.
“We work together to create scalable platforms to enable faster time to market, to improve [production] cost in a very innovative way and to bring new cars into this rapidly growing area,” NXP global sales executive vice president Ron Martino told reporters on Wednesday.
Optimized and innovative semiconductor content would help EV original-electronic manufacturers to achieve reductions in total system costs, including software costs, he said.
The latest partnerships was an extension from a memorandum of understanding NXP signed with Hon Hai in July last year to jointly develop platforms for a new generation of smart, connected vehicles, aiming to leverage NXP’s portfolio of automotive technologies.
As the semiconductor content in each car is outgrowing the unit shipments of vehicles, NXP expects the automotive segment to be the fastest growth engine for the company next year, followed by the industrial and Internet-of-Things segment, Martino said.
The company projected that automotive segment revenue would expand at an annual growth rate of between 9 percent and 14 percent during the 2021-2024 period.
The average semiconductor content per car is expected to grow at an annual rate of 8 percent to US$1405 by 2029, up from US$909 today, Martino said, citing a Bloomberg forecast.
Taiwan’s technology protection rules prohibits Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) from producing 2-nanometer chips abroad, so the company must keep its most cutting-edge technology at home, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks in response to concerns that TSMC might be forced to produce advanced 2-nanometer chips at its fabs in Arizona ahead of schedule after former US president Donald Trump was re-elected as the next US president on Tuesday. “Since Taiwan has related regulations to protect its own technologies, TSMC cannot produce 2-nanometer chips overseas currently,” Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
TECH WAR CONTINUES: The suspension of TSMC AI chips and GPUs would be a heavy blow to China’s chip designers and would affect its competitive edge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, is reportedly to halt supply of artificial intelligence (AI) chips and graphics processing units (GPUs) made on 7-nanometer or more advanced process technologies from next week in order to comply with US Department of Commerce rules. TSMC has sent e-mails to its Chinese AI customers, informing them about the suspension starting on Monday, Chinese online news outlet Ijiwei.com (愛集微) reported yesterday. The US Department of Commerce has not formally unveiled further semiconductor measures against China yet. “TSMC does not comment on market rumors. TSMC is a law-abiding company and we are
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said