MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is testing its 5G chips that support millimeter-wave technology at the company’s research-and-development (R&D) center in Hsinchu in collaboration with Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) to accelerate the rollout of the world’s first chips using the technology.
MediaTek’s announcement came after the world’s largest 5G handset chip supplier built a strong presence in 5G chips using other technologies, driven by chips that support the 6 gigahertz band or lower.
The partnership with Chunghwa Telecom offers favorable conditions for MediaTek to introduce the new 5G chips to the US, Europe and Japan, the companies said in a joint statement.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
MediaTek has cooperated with more than 100 telecoms worldwide to certify its 5G chips, it said.
To create the environment needed for testing, Chunghwa Telecom has deployed 5G non-stand-alone mobile networks in MediaTek’s 5G R&D center, utilizing the telecom’s mid-band 3.5 gigahertz and high-band 28 gigahertz bands, the statement said.
MediaTek told investors in January that its millimeter-wave system-on-a-chip has been certified by a major global operator, with mass production scheduled to begin in the second half of this year for the global market.
MediaTek said it expects the worldwide 5G penetration rate to surpass 50 percent this year, compared with slightly more than 35 percent last year.
That means about 700 million 5G smartphones would be shipped this year, up 40 percent from 500 million units last year, the company said.
Separately, MediaTek said it has won priority status to acquire the superficies rights for a 1,736m2 plot in Hsinchu for NT$3.77 billion (US$130.78 million), the company said in a Taiwan Stock Exchange filing yesterday.
The land is owned by the Railway Bureau, it said.
MediaTek was given the right to develop the land near Hsinchu’s high-speed rail station for 70 years, the bureau said in a statement.
The chipmaker plans to spend NT$9 billion on the development project and create 3,000 new jobs, the bureau said.
In a separate statement, MediaTek said it is planning to build an office building at the same site, as that would boost talent acquisition of R&D engineers to support the company’s bullish prospects.
MediaTek plans to hire 2,000 new employees this year, the company said.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
RSS