The National Science Council (
The center will be created from the council's Chip Implementation Center, officials said. The new chip design center hopes to play a key role in helping Taiwan to become a leader in the information appliance industry.
Experts believe that information appliances will dominate the so-called "post-PC era."
The industry's prospects have attracted players from the computer, communication and consumer sectors.
But to inexpensively manufacture information appliances such as Internet-enabled DVD players, radios or home servers, systems-on-a-chip technology is required.
"The application of SoC in an integrated circuit means that we can manufacture cheaper, more efficient and more reliable" Internet appliances, said Lee Chen-yi (
Lee said that Taiwan was well-suited to develop systems-on-a-chip technology because of its strong microchip design and manufacturing capabilities.
A white paper released by the chip design center yesterday outlined as goals the promotion of design capabilities in the semiconductor manufacturing industry; establishing research fellowships in the field; and establishing intellectual property databases related to semiconductors.
The white paper also estimates that Taiwan could become the top manufacturer of information appliances within five years.
Paul Lin (林寶樹), president of Philips Research East Asia, said yesterday that the market for the industrial use of information appliances in Taiwan had great potential.
"The estimated value [of the systems-on-a-chip market] will increase to NT$5.494 billion in 2004 from NT$685 million in 2000," Lin estimated.
The National Science Council launched its program for promoting information appliance technology in 1999.
In addition to establishing a new chip design center yesterday, other projects include promoting the "next-generation Internet."
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to