Text | Chen Xuanbin
Source丨Intelligent Relativity (ID: aixdlun)
Editor's note: Since the U.S. cut off the supply of ZTE in 2018, the status of the chip industry has been raised to an unprecedented height. China has carried out a "chip breakthrough" from top to bottom. The industry breakthrough is simple to say, nothing more than supplementing the basic modules. To build a relatively complete ecological chain; industry breakthroughs are also very complicated. In addition to the visible technical shortcomings that require breakthroughs, there are too many to be resolved in terms of planning, market, model, direction, and capital. problem.
The theory of intelligent relativity tries to analyze all aspects of "chip breakthrough" from a three-dimensional perspective. This is the fifth article on the topic of "chip breakthrough". How do you see the grand "coremaking" in the Internet of Things field?
The core points of this article:
●Why domestic "core-making" should focus on the field of Internet of Things?
●Which players are "making cores" in the field of Internet of Things?
●Can the "core-making" of the Internet of Things achieve chip breakthrough?
As more and more domestic companies begin to realize the importance of "core-making", the wheel of the times has fallen on the Internet of Things (IoT). After computers and the Internet, the Internet of Things is considered to be the third wave of the world's information industry. It has developed particularly rapidly in China and is a focus that cannot be ignored in the current society and market.
The wave of the Internet of Things unexpectedly met with the domestic "core-making" action, and it became the main direction of major chip brands and technology companies. It is not difficult to find that most of the self-developed AI chips now serve IoT-related products and scenarios.
In this regard, industry professionals generally have a relatively optimistic prediction that by 2023, 83% of the world's AI chips will be supplied to IoT devices (such as cars, smart speakers, smart watches, and agricultural equipment). At the same time, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, my country's IoT market reached 1.77 trillion in 2019 and is expected to exceed 2 trillion in 2020.
This wave is also shocking in the international market. According to the "Mobile Economy 2020" report released by the Global Association for Mobile Communications Systems, the total number of global IoT connections will reach 12 billion in 2019. It is expected that the total number of global IoT connections will be increased by 2025. Reached 24.6 billion.
It can be said that the coming of the Internet of Things has greatly strengthened the determination of major brand companies to "make cores". From the current development point of view, the mutual promotion of AI chips and the Internet of Things has become a fixed trend.
Counterattack, link and expansion, what are the "core-making" players of the Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the universal basic technologies that will empower all industries in the future, and the autonomy of this outlet is even more critical. Whether it is the country or the industry, in general, just one sentence-one cannot be "stuck" on the road of development.
Self-developed cores in the field of the Internet of Things are now a signal that many brand companies have clearly conveyed to the market. A series of factors, such as the overall situation of the country and the country, the needs of its own development, the necessity of industrial transformation, and so on, have pushed the giants of all walks of life to rush to the road of self-developed chips.
On the boulevard, there are bustling and crowded players, and there are three types of players who often appear in the media.
The first category is home appliance manufacturers that counterattack upstream of the supply chain.
Smart home is the field where the public has the most profound understanding of the Internet of Things (IoT). It can be said that under the education of Xiaomi's AIoT strategy, the home market's awareness of the Internet of Things is gradually deepening.
More and more users and manufacturers are sure that smart home appliances will be the next outlet in the home market. For this reason, seeking a breakthrough in smart home appliances and the entrance to the Internet of Everything with card slots have naturally become the direction of major appliance manufacturers.
Home appliances are no longer just home appliances. Intelligent upgrades provide home appliance manufacturers with more professional R&D needs. Capable home appliance giants began to counterattack upstream of the supply chain and set foot in the semiconductor industry.
In 2017, Gree Electric established the microelectronics department, and in the following years, it invested 6 billion yuan in the semiconductor field. It has established Zero Border Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd., invested in Anshi Semiconductor, invested in Sanan Optoelectronics, and so on.
In 2018, Konka established the Semiconductor Technology Division, and revealed that it will invest a total of 30 billion yuan in the full-link semiconductor industry. So far, semiconductors have become one of Konka's three core development lines.
In 2019, Midea cooperated with San'an Integrated Circuit to establish a semiconductor joint laboratory, and customized and developed HolaCon, a dedicated chip for Internet of Things home appliances that year, and achieved large-scale applications.
It is true that under the urgent situation, downstream home appliance manufacturers rely on determined determination and huge capital to increasingly advance to the semiconductor industry upstream of the supply chain, and "core-making" moves frequently.
The rise of the Internet of Things first disrupted the supply chain pattern of the home appliance industry.
The second category is cloud service providers that link their own solutions.
In 2018, Alibaba Cloud announced the establishment of the chip company "Pingtou Brother", and then jointly with ASR (ASR Technology) released a single chip ASR6501 with ultra-small size and low power consumption LoRa1262 integration, aiming at applications in the Internet of Things.
The so-called Internet of Things application field is exactly the scene of the key services of cloud services such as smart cities, smart security, smart agriculture, and smart logistics. In these scenarios, the Internet of Things (IoT) technology is not the only core technology, but it is indeed an absolutely indispensable basic technology.
Similarly, in a series of cloud service solutions provided by Huawei Cloud, many IoT-related content are included, such as the open source IoT operating system Huawei LiteOS, IoT communication modules and chips, eLTE/NB-IoT/5G wireless access Access to the network, enterprise IoT and smart home gateways, IoT connection management platforms, IoT network integration services, etc.
The logic is not difficult to understand. The Internet of Things (IoT) is indispensable in cloud services, and the hard support of AI chips is indispensable in the field of Internet of Things. Under the interlocking factors, it is logical for cloud service providers to anchor the IoT field as chips.
The third category is chip manufacturers that expand the scope of product applications.
They were originally a type of player on the chip track. With the expansion of the Internet of Things market, more and more demand began to erupt in this field, and they also expanded the application scope of their products and began to turn to chip research and development in the Internet of Things field.
However, compared to the above two types of players, their bullseye is obviously more accurate.
It is also applied to the field of Internet of Things. Huada Electronics mainly anchors the Internet of Things SE chip, which is the security chip. At present, BGI’s chip products have been commercialized on a large scale, and provide complete solutions for security chips for cloud service providers such as Alibaba Cloud and terminal vendors in various industries.
It is true that the field of the Internet of Things is extremely large, and the scope of applications is also expanding, which means that it is impossible to meet the ever-erupting demand for the Internet of Things with only one chip. The professional and deep cultivation of occupying the subdivision field has become the expansion idea of this type of chip player.
Broad IoT solutions are left to major manufacturers, such as home appliance manufacturers or cloud service providers; professional players on the chip track still anchor their professional fields and build deep sub-modules, and then form friendly competition and cooperation with major manufacturers to jointly promote Chip research and development in the field of Internet of Things.
In the field of Internet of Things, can the three types of players complete the chip breakthrough?
Today, domestic "core-making" has a sense of mission that transcends the industry. Perhaps this is not just about thinking about the development needs of its own industry. After the United States cut off the supply of ZTE, more and more people have clearly seen a pair of technological hands that are controlling the development of the throat.
Making the core is for its own business and also for breaking the hand of control. This is what we mean when we say "chip breakthrough".
The Internet of Things, currently the most popular, is also a market with unstable technology and undecided seats. Domestic players have reasons to focus on this field.
On the one hand, the three types of players gathered here, and the core making ushered in an unprecedented grand occasion; on the other hand, compared with other modules in the field of Internet of Things, the market is relatively immature and weak, which seems to give domestic players an opportunity to seize the lead. One shot.
But is it true? The answer may be confusing.
The reason is that "coremaking" is not simple. From design to production offline, especially manufacturing, each step means hundreds of projects and long-term processing to be realized.
From a complete chip industry chain, the ultimate need to achieve breakthrough should be the synchronization or leading of the process technology.
However, at present, players who want to break through the three types of players in the field of Internet of Things are mostly staying in the design and development of the chip, and few really step into the lowest level of production.
Perhaps, after all, we want to understand that the chip breakthrough is not in which field, but in the strength of its own industrial chain.
Simply put, if you want to achieve true chip autonomy, you need a professional expert in the semiconductor field, not a cross-border player who expands based on his own business.
We can't be exact, let a home appliance manufacturer leave its home appliance production line and invest in the creation of a chip production line. Similarly, for cloud service vendors, it is clear at a glance whether to help enterprise services go to the cloud and solve chip production offline.
However, we do not need to be exacting. Although chip breakthroughs require more autonomy in the production process, it also requires the rise of the design process.
Chip breakthrough is a long way to go. From design to production, progress in all aspects is necessary. Similarly, no matter which field you are in, it is obviously worth a try.
The voice of the Internet of Things market is the highest, and it is also the most attractive to the major market giants. If they can promote the development of the core making process based on their business needs, it is certainly gratifying.
However, if it is impossible to realize the key links, such as the autonomy of the process technology, such a breakthrough is a bit like a bubble. After all, in the chip field, what is needed is absolute professionalism, focus and specialization.
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