Handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched its first artificial-intelligence (AI)-based processor, the Helio P60, to support growing demand for machine learning on mobile devices.
In response to lost market share to rivals, particularly Qualcomm Inc, MediaTek last year reshaped its product strategy to focus on the mid to high-end Helio P series.
The company wants to bring advanced features to flagship mid to high-end smartphones, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) said in January.
It is reportedly to supply the Helio P60 to Chinese smartphone vendor Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀移動) for its latest Oppo R15 model, undercutting Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 700 processor order.
The Helio P60 is the first of two AI-specific processors MediaTek plans to launch in the first half of this year, it said, adding that smartphones powered by the processor would be available globally starting early next quarter.
The latest processor, built using 12-nanometer technology, brings NeuroPilot AI technology to smartphones with on-board AI for face detection, “smart” imaging and video, MediaTek said in a statement yesterday.
Chinese companies — including Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), AI company SenseTime (商湯科技), Megvil Technology Ltd (曠視科技) and Silicon Valley-based visual computing technologies developer ArcSoft Inc (虹軟) — are designing their products and services based on the Helio P60 processor, the statement said.
AI in smartphones is not new, as it has powered some basic functions for years, but “advanced AI-powered features will become crucial differentiators for smartphone vendors,” Gartner Inc said last month.
The market researcher expects AI use in smartphones to proliferate through 2022, with 80 percent of all smartphones coming equipped with on-device AI capabilities, up from 10 percent last year.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, has decided to slow down its 3-nanometer chip production as Intel Corp, one of its major customers, plans to push back the launch of its new Meteor Lake tGPU chipsets to the end of next year, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. That means Intel has canceled almost all of the 3-nanometer capacity booked for next year, with only a small amount of wafer input remaining for engineering verification, the Taipei-based researcher said in a report. Based on Intel’s original schedule, TSMC was to start producing the new chipsets in
DATA SHOW DOWNTURN: Manufacturing in Taiwan contracted as production and demand slumped, while growth in chip exports last month eased in South Korea World chip sales growth has decelerated for six straight months in another sign that the global economy is straining under the weight of rising interest rates and mounting geopolitical risks. Semiconductor sales rose 13.3 percent in June from a year earlier, down from 18 percent in May, data from the global peak industry body showed. The slowdown is the longest since the US-China trade dispute in 2018. The three-month moving average in chip sales has correlated with the global economy’s performance in the past few decades. The latest weakness comes as concern about a worldwide recession has prompted chipmakers such as Samsung
‘NO NEED TO WORRY’: The central bank governor said foreign selling on the TAIEX is normal for this time of year and that the nation has ample forex reserves Taiwan would emerge unscathed from China’s retaliatory actions to protest US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei, top monetary and financial officials said yesterday. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) shrugged off unease over potential instability in the foreign exchange and stock markets after foreign portfolio funds trimmed their holdings of local shares for two straight days amid Beijing’s threats of retaliation. “There is no need to worry,” Yang said on the sidelines of an event to celebrate the first anniversary of the opening of Central American Bank for Economic Integration’s (CABEI) Taipei office and the 30th anniversary of
Italy is close to clinching a deal initially worth US$5 billion with Intel Corp to build an advanced semiconductor packaging and assembly plant in the country, two sources briefed on discussions said yesterday. Intel’s investment in Italy is part of a wider plan announced by the US chipmaker earlier this year to invest US$88 billion in building capacity across Europe, which is striving to cut its reliance on Asian chip imports and ease a supply crunch that has curbed output in the region’s strategic auto sector. Asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, the sources said the