Following rival Alibaba, Tencent joined semiconductor race to launch three self-...

Following rival Alibaba, Tencent joined semiconductor race to launch three self-designed chips

Following rival Alibaba, Tencent joined semiconductor race to launch three self-designed chips

November 4, 2021 9:10 am

Tencent launched three new self-designed chips on Wednesday, joining other Chinese tech giant in a race to develop in-house integrated circuits as China pushes for self-sufficiency in chip making amid the continuing trade and tech battle with the US.

Detail: 

Dowson Tang Daosheng, a senior executive vice president and chief executive of Tencent’s cloud and smart industries group, unveiled the three chips at Tencent’s Digital Summit in Wuhan.

The three new chips are the artificial intelligence chip Zixiao, which is focused on processing images, video and natural language; a video transcoding device Canghai; and network interface controller Xuanling.

“We have made a long-term plan for chip research and development,” said Tang.

Tencent actively involved in the sector since 2020 when it set up Penglai Lab to design and test chip. Earlier this year, it has participated a CNY1.8 billion series C financing round for Enflame Technology, which primarily focus on developing cloud-based deep learning chip for artificial intelligence training platform.

Context:

Tencent’s drive align with Chinese government policy to boost the domestic semiconductor sector to reduce alliance on imports.

In response to national initiative, Alibaba, Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo and ByteDance all entered into the semiconductor sector.

Last month, Alibaba has unveiled a new server chip called Yitian 710 to power its giant cloud computing operation.

Developed by Alibaba's in-house semiconductor unit T-Head, the new processor is based on architecture from UK-based Arm, and it will not be available for commercial use outside of Alibaba.

To mitigate the effects of U.S ban that block semiconductor supplies to Chinese tech firms, Huawei has been researching and developing next-generation Kirin chip through its HiSilicon subsidiary.

In September, VIVO registered two trademark under the names of “Vivo SOC” and Vivo Chip, supply chain partners of Vivo said the Dongguan-based smartphone maker will soon launch its first mobile chip under the internet project named “Yueying”, and Vivo’s next-generation flagship phone X70 could be the first model to equip the chips.

Xiaomi Corp unveiled its Surge 1 chip for image processing in phone cameras this year.

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