Huawei To Expand Car Collaboration With Changan To Include Making Automotive Chips

Huawei is broadening its existing smart car partnership with government-owned Changan Automobile to include the design and development of automotive chips, sources told Reuters.

For months, both companies have been informally working together on chips, two sources told Reuters. Another source claimed that the companies might soon enter a joint venture dedicated to chip development.

The move does seem natural as the global automotive industry has seen crippling production delays due to an ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips. Major chip producers see the shortage lasting into next year.

Also, last month, Huawei announced that it would collaborate with three automakers to produce self-driving cars with the Huawei name as a sub-brand. Changan is one of those automakers. The company has worked on developing its own chips, but hasn’t gotten far, two sources told Reuters.

Huawei’s smart car collaboration with Changan involves the former providing the vehicle’s operating system and cabin technologies while latter is assigned vehicle design and engineering.

Huawei’s pivot to the automotive industry comes after its core smartphone business was wrecked by US sanctions enacted by former US President Donald Trump. In April, the company said it would spend over US$1 billion (~RM4.1 billion) to research and develop self-driving and electric car technologies.

IBM Claims “World First” Title With Production Of 2nm Chips

IBM may have beaten the crowd today after claims that it has developed the world’s first 2nm chips. To state the obvious, the new chip is made with some relatively groundbreaking technology that won’t be found on the current 7nm process nodes.

IBM’s 2nm chip features exceptionally thin wiring – thinner and smaller than the width of a single strand of human DNA. To put in Axios’ words: the chip can also be fitted with up to 50 billion transistors in an area around the size of a fingernail.

While there are no official data and performance metrics of the chip yet, IBM says that its new chip could boast an improved performance of 45% over current 7nm offerings with the same power. Alternatively, the same chip could also be altered and tweaked, so that it may consume up to 75% less energy, but still maintain the same performance level as a 7nm.

While IBM may have taken the championship belt within the semiconductor industry, it is fair to say that that title will be challenged – most likely by TSMC – within a year or two. As for now, the world is still waiting on the arrival of 3nm chips, while the 5nm made its debut with Apple’s latest iPhone 12 series.

IBM Claims “World First” Title With Production Of 2nm Chips

IBM may have beaten the crowd today after claims that it has developed the world’s first 2nm chips. To state the obvious, the new chip is made with some relatively groundbreaking technology that won’t be found on the current 7nm process nodes.

IBM’s 2nm chip features exceptionally thin wiring – thinner and smaller than the width of a single strand of human DNA. To put in Axios’ words: the chip can also be fitted with up to 50 billion transistors in an area around the size of a fingernail.

While there are no official data and performance metrics of the chip yet, IBM says that its new chip could boast an improved performance of 45% over current 7nm offerings with the same power. Alternatively, the same chip could also be altered and tweaked, so that it may consume up to 75% less energy, but still maintain the same performance level as a 7nm.

While IBM may have taken the championship belt within the semiconductor industry, it is fair to say that that title will be challenged – most likely by TSMC – within a year or two. As for now, the world is still waiting on the arrival of 3nm chips, while the 5nm made its debut with Apple’s latest iPhone 12 series.

TSMC 2nm Chips Reportedly Enters Development; 3nm, 4nm Due In 2022

While the chip shortage is expected to rage on till next year, Taiwanese foundry, TSMC, has no intentions of slowing down the development of new and thinner fabrications of its products. To that end, reports suggest that the foundry has already entered development of a 2nm process node.

According to Anandtech, TSMC seems to be developing both 3nm and 2nm at the same time. Unsurprisingly, the Taiwanese foundry isn’t sharing a lot of detail, only that development for the die lithography is progressing nicely under its “advanced CMOS logic”.

As for its 3nm and 4nm process, Anandtech says that both process nodes are still on track with its development, with 4nm expected to enter mass production by early 2022, while the 3nm – part of the company’s N3 roadmap – should enter risk production this year, with mass production expected to begin during the second half of 2022.

TSMC has long dominated the semiconductor market and has virtually cornered half the market, the other half having been bagged by Samsung. Earlier this month, the company also announced that it would spend US$100 billion (~RM410 billion) over the next three years to ramp up its production capacity.