MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest supplier of smartphone chips, yesterday said the tape-out process for its first 2-nanometer chip would take place in September, paving the way for volume production of its most advanced chip, likely to be its next-generation flagship smartphone chip, around the year-end at the earliest.
MediaTek has been leveraging advanced process technologies from its foundry partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), to build its flagship mobile phone chips, a segment it once relinquished and then recovered four years ago as it released its Dimensity series.
In the semiconductor industry, a tape-out refers to the final stage of the chip design cycle before it is sent for manufacturing.
Photo: I-hwa Cheng, AFP
MediaTek’s most advanced mobile chip available is the Dimensity 9400, made on TSMC’s 3-nanometer process technology. The chip delivers a 25 percent power efficiency improvement and 15 percent enhancement in performance compared with its predecessor, MediaTek said.
“We are now moving into 2-nanometer [technology]. We will be taping out our first 2-nanometer device in September this year. Of course, this is a high-volume chip,” MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) said during his Computex keynote speech in Taipei themed “AI for Everyone: From Edge to Cloud.”
“You probably can guess what: 2 nanometers. I’m not allowed to announce, cause J.C. is here,” Tsai said, referring J.C. Hsu (徐敬全), MediaTek senior vice president in charge of wireless communications.
Tsai did not specify which product the 2 nanometer technology would be used to build.
MediaTek apparently would continue adopting next generations of technologies that follow Moore’s Law.
MediaTek said that as chip production technology is advancing to angstrom level, it would adopt 16A or 14A chips based on its long-term roadmap, Tsai said.
TSMC would start volume production of its 16A chips in the second half of next year.
“Whatever [technology] after that, MediaTek is in,” Tsai said.
MediaTek has been diversifying its product lines to minimize operational risks. Mobile chips remain the biggest revenue source of the company, making up about 56 percent of its total revenue last quarter.
Two years ago, MediaTek expanded its business scope to supply automotive chips, and most recently application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC), artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators for cloud-based data center operators and super chips, in collaboration with Nvidia Corp.
As AI data center chips are usually much larger than those for mobile phones or TVs, “people wonder if MediaTek can do that, as it is known as a consumer electronics company. Yes, we can,” Tsai said.
MediaTek has a record of accomplishment in developing ASICs for data centers, he said.
The company is ready to supply four different sizes of chips, from a type of mobile phone chip to an automotive chip and two big networking chips, including one equipped with high-band-width memory (HBM) chips, he said.
The company’s networking chip with HBM chips has been under volume production for more than one year, measuring 91x91mm2, he said.
As for super chips, MediaTek would be supplying chips used in Nvidia’s new AI-based personal device, DGX Spark, Tsai said.
Nvidia did not disclose the product’s launch date, but CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said that it would make a good Christmas present.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
RSS