Samsung accelerates moves to bolster automotive chip business
Samsung Electronics unveils three new chip products for vehicles, Tuesday. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
Tech giant unveils 3 new automotive chips
By Baek Byung-yeul
Samsung Electronics is speeding up efforts to strengthen its system chip business since Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong resumed management control.
A few days after the Samsung chief announced the company's investment to establish a foundry factory in Texas during his visit to the United States last week, Samsung unveiled three new chips for vehicles in order to capitalize on the fast-growing automotive chip market.
The continued automotive chip shortage has been affecting backbone industries in the U.S. and prompted the world's largest economy to boost investments in semiconductor production.
The three new chips are the Exynos Auto T5123 in-vehicle telecommunications chip enabling 5G connectivity, the Exynos Auto V7 logic chip for vehicle infotainment systems and the S2VPS01 power management IC (PMIC), according to its statement.
The Exynos Auto T5123 is the world's first automotive chip offering 5G connectivity.
Demand is increasing for high-speed telecommunications chips and high-performance processor chips for automobiles. Also, semiconductors capable of efficiently managing power in vehicles are being favored due to an increase in electronic components mounted on vehicles.
In a statement, Samsung said that its Exynos Auto V7 chip is currently used in Volkswagen's latest In-Car Application-Server (ICAS) 3.1, developed by LG Electronics' Vehicle component Solutions division, to power their next-generation, in-vehicle infotainment system.”
Samsung Electronics' chip division and its cross-town rival, LG, are targeting the expansion of the global EV market and the accelerated electrification of vehicles as chances to provide more high-tech semiconductors and complex parts, according to analysts.
The processor chip is powered by a high-performance central processing unit and graphics processing unit, as well as a neural processing unit, for convenient services such as processing visual and audio data for face, speech or gesture recognition.
Also, the statement stressed the safety features of Samsung's automotive chips, which are capable of operating up to four displays and processing information from 12 cameras to assist drivers and passengers.