Taiwan forms alliance to develop AI chips

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digitimes.com, Taipei, Jul. 03, 2019 – 

Taiwan has formed an AI on Chip Taiwan Alliance (AITA) - an ecosystem consisting of 56 IT and semiconductor manufacturing companies, IC design and software firms aiming to foster and accelerate the development and production of AI chips in Taiwan.

The goal of the alliance is to enable related semiconductor companies to reduce the development cost of AI chips by 10 times, shorten the development time by more than six months, and catapult Taiwan to become a leading supplier of AI chips in the global market, said AITA chairman Nicky Lu at the launch of the alliance. Lu is president and CEO of Etron Technology.

Leveraging sources available at government agencies and related academics, the alliance will promote the development of a new architecture for the manufacture of AI chips empowered with multitask handling capability, flexibility and low power consumption, Lu said.

AITA's initial efforts call for the development of semi-generic AI chips, heterogeneous integrated AI chips and emerging computing AI chips, as well as the formation of a software compilation environment for AI chips, said sources familiar with the matter.

Noting that the global AI chip market is forecast to reach NT$500 billion (US$16.07 billion) in 2022, economic minister Shen Jong-chin said that Taiwan will benefit from the growing AI chip market. The country has the advantage to develop AI chips for front-end devices as it boasts strong semiconductor and IT manufacturing industries, and is a trusted partner of global major IT brands, Shen said.

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