"Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" (reporter Ao Jin) news, on March 9, automotive electronic chip developer Core Qing Technology, obtained hundreds of millions of yuan of strategic investment from China FAW. Core Engine Technology said that this round of financing will be used for the research and development and deployment of more advanced chips, and core engine and FAW will cooperate in the field of vehicle specification level and high computing power chips to enhance the independent innovation of FAW's cars in the fields of intelligent cockpit and automatic driving.
According to the data, Core Engine Technology successfully streamed the film in June 2021, and launched the first domestic vehicle specification-level 7nm intelligent cockpit chip in December of the same year, which is scheduled to be mass-produced in the third quarter of this year.
In recent years, the lack of core market has accelerated the rhythm of independent replacement of domestic automotive chips, and domestic automotive electronic chips have ushered in an explosive period. Semiconductor industry investment research experts told the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reporter that at present, including the core of the core technology and other domestic automotive electronic chip factories have started, "basically completed the development of research and development programs, technical solutions, follow-up also need to achieve mass production, through the vehicle regulation certification." Overall, it is to take steps in some segments of the automotive chip system. ”
Car veterans join forces with chip veterans
According to the official website, Core Engine Technology focuses on the design, development and sales of advanced automotive electronic chips, jointly funded by Yijiatong Technology and Anmou China Company, registered in Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone, Hubei Province, with branches in Beijing, Shanghai and the United States.
Yijiatong Technology is an automotive intelligent technology company, the main business focuses on in-vehicle chips, intelligent cockpit, intelligent driving, high-precision maps, big data and vehicle networking cloud platform and other core technology products. It was co-founded by Li Shufu and Shen Ziyu, founders of Geely Automobile, in 2016. Anmou China is a Chinese-controlled CPU IP supplier, formerly known as Arm China subsidiary.
According to Tianyan, Yang Jian is currently the chairman of Xinqing Technology, Wang Kai is the CEO of the company, and Shen Ziyu is the director and general manager.
According to public information, Yang Jian is the vice chairman of Geely Holding Group, responsible for the core work of the group's annual business strategy, assessment target formulation, corporate planning, new energy business, forward-looking technology research, and operation and management performance appraisal.
Kai Wang was the CEO of Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology Company. Huaxintong was established in Guizhou in 2016, a joint venture between Qualcomm and the Guizhou Provincial Government, specializing in the design and development of server chips. In 2019, Huaxintong ceased business.
Shen Ziyu is also currently serving as the CEO of Yijiatong Technology.
According to wisdom bud data, as of now, Core Engine Technology has applied for a total of 28 patents, of which 21 are effective patents. Invention patents accounted for 92.86% of the total number of patents. From the perspective of patent content, the company's current technology focus areas are video display, display switching, hardware, display unit, system-level core; fan control, interface data, temperature regulation device, wake-up circuit, vehicle and other five major items.
The company's main inventors include Jin Zhengxiong, Yu Yongqing, Zhang Fan, Meng Zhaonan, etc., and the number of patented inventions of the four people is 10, 8, 7 and 6 respectively. The "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reporter searched and found that Jin Zhengxiong also had a number of invention patents applied for by different companies, including Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. in 2012, applied by Elseport Hynix Co., Ltd. in June 2018, Guizhou Huaxintong Semiconductor Technology Co., Ltd. applied in December 2018, and Winbond Electronics Co., Ltd. applied in 2019.
Some semiconductor industry researchers told the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" reporter that the 7mn intelligent cockpit chip currently launched by the core engine is only one of the parts of the entire chip system, "the main corresponding is the driving control, of course, it is related to the motor control and body control of the car chassis, but more involved is the dashboard in front of the driver." ”
It said that the core engine can achieve the 7nm level, which to a certain extent represents that the company has strong design capabilities. "But the design capabilities are also related to the demand, as far as the current development of the industry is concerned, if it cannot reach the 7nm level, it may not meet the corresponding power consumption and energy consumption requirements."
The researcher further said that the smart cockpit chip of the core engine is still time away from mass production and commercial use. "It is currently in the stage of achieving a technological breakthrough, but the technological breakthrough to mass production, which also involves cooperation with domestic car companies, suppliers and other cooperation for testing and verification, there will be a cycle in between, and finally need to complete the car certification."
According to the planning of the core engine, in the third quarter of this year, the first intelligent cockpit chip can achieve mass production. However, the above-mentioned industry insiders said that the time required for vehicle regulation verification will be longer, "there are half a year to 9 months, and the long time is 2-3 years." "According to the conventional process, after completing the vehicle specification certification, the chip can really get on the car."
The color geometry of the domestic automobile core
From the analysis of automobile structure, in a car, the traditional distributed architecture requires 70-300 MCUs; under the domain architecture (functional domain/position domain), a total of 4-8 SoC chips and 40-60 MCU chips will be carried; and under the central computing architecture, it will be equipped with 2-4 SoC chips and 10-20 high-performance MCU chips. In short, in a conventionally constructed car, about 100-400 chips are needed. With the electrification and intelligent development of automobiles, the demand for chips in automobiles has multiplied.
The demand brought about by the intelligent upgrading of automobile electric vehicles, superimposed on the crisis of automobile core shortage since the new crown epidemic and the promotion of policies, domestic automotive electronic chip developers ushered in a period of strategic development opportunities. However, some insiders said that it needs to be seen that at this stage, as a whole, domestic automotive electronic chips are still in the early stage of development.
Wu Quan, an expert on the Whale platform and founding partner of Huaxin Jintong (Beijing) Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd., introduced to the "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" that there is a certain degree of difficulty in chip research and development, and automotive chips are even more so, "because automotive electronic chips will have higher and stricter requirements for safety, power consumption, energy consumption, etc. On the basis of traditional consumer electronics or industrial grades, it has added some performance parameter requirements to meet the characteristics of automotive electronic components." ”
He said that the research and development progress made by some automotive chip developers at this stage, including Core Engine, is the starting point for the establishment of autonomy and localization of domestic automotive industry chips, "Some of the technological breakthroughs currently made in the research and development of domestic automotive electronic chips have good demonstration significance, and it is expected to achieve industrialization and commercialization as soon as possible." ”
He admitted that most of the domestic car factories, especially several traditional car factories, do not have independent and controllable chip companies or chips, so once there is a lack of chip supply, such car factories can easily fall into passivity. "So we will see that some big car manufacturers will make strategic investments in such automotive chip developers, in fact, they are making a layout for the long-term stability and security of the industrial chain, but the success of this layout requires patience."
Wu Quan said that he is also looking at the investment opportunities of science and technology innovation enterprises in the automotive chip track. In terms of judging the scientific and technological achievements of such companies, he said, "First look at the technology, technology is the foundation, or look at the carrier of technology, that is, the technical level and ability of people or teams." There is also the source of the company's technology, the technology has a source, whether it is independent intellectual property rights, or from the purchase, or grafting or secondary development based on the foundation of others, these will be different. In addition, it is necessary to look at the degree of productization and marketization of technology. Finally, it also depends on who the company's products are supplied to, and there will still be great differences in different car manufacturers."