In the competition of domestic semiconductor IP, who comes out on top?

For a long time, my country's integrated circuit industry has generally focused on the development of SoC at the application level, with limited investment in underlying technologies. Although a large amount of development funds have been accumulated thanks to the rapid expansion of the domestic market, there are still many breakpoints in the core technology chain and key supply chain, ignoring the underlying technology, especially the key core links represented by IP.

Currently, the most widely used IP cores come from international companies such as Arm, Synopsys, Imagination and Cadence. According to data from industry organization IPNest, Arm, as the leader, obtained more than 40% of the market share in 2020, and the patent royalties brought by its IP pool exceed billions each year.

In recent years, domestic chip IP companies have gradually developed, and the types of IP products have been continuously expanded. IP manufacturers and industry chain partners have consciously created scale effects and cluster effects to build a good ecology and promote common development. On the one hand, domestic companies are catching up with international leading IP manufacturers, and on the other hand, they are also seeking breakthroughs to keep pace with the world's advanced manufacturers. More and more IP companies and outstanding products have appeared in the domestic integrated circuit market, winning recognition from customers and the industry.

The third "Hardcore China Chip" held by the leading domestic semiconductor electronic information media Core Master brought together more than 100 well-known and potential companies in China's semiconductor chip industry. This article selects the semiconductor IP- related products participating in the competition in order to provide more choices for the market.

Innosilicon is a leading one-stop IP and chip customization company in China, providing a full set of high-speed hybrid circuit IP cores and ASIC customization solutions from 0.18 microns to 5 nanometers for the world's six major process plants. The company has been based on local development for 15 years, and all IPs and products are fully self-controlled. After billions of mass production and polishing, it has been leading the Chinese market share for ten consecutive years. Innosilicon is the only technology partner signed by the world's top wafer factories in China, and billions of high-end SOC chip products in the world are backed by Innosilicon technology.

Full range of DDR series storage interface solutions

Innosilicon's GDDR6/6X IP, high-performance DDR4/LPDDR4/4X, and HBM2e IP are all at the highest level in China, and are far ahead in the industry in terms of both maximum speed and process advancement.

Innosilicon Technology's full range of top storage interface solutions for DDR4/3, LPDDR4/3 Combo PHY & Controller, GDDR6/6X, and HBM2e high-end solutions support fully customized hard core and SI packaging solutions, one-stop worry-free integration, and provide an overall full harden PHY delivery model, providing the best domestic solution for high performance, low power consumption, small size, and scalable design for domestic chip design, and has been optimized through multiple tape-out iterations. For example, the flexible Combo feature of DDR PHY, the adaptability of controllers from different manufacturers, can be customized in various ways according to customer needs in terms of shape, area, and power consumption, to achieve plug-and-play. The number of authorized mass-produced chips has reached more than 2.5 billion particles.

Huaxiaxin is the first provider of core key IP, high-end heterogeneous chips and solutions in China's heterogeneous computing field based on the design concept of the new generation of heterogeneous processors and the new unified instruction set architecture. The company was founded in December 2014 and is headquartered in Beijing. It has R&D centers in Shanghai, Guangzhou, New York and other places. Huaxiaxin has CPU, DSP, GPU and AI processor IP with completely independent intellectual property rights. Based on the original "unified instruction set", efficient micro-architecture and tool chain, it provides customized IP and chip products of different series such as high performance and high energy efficiency for the Internet of Things, edge computing and cloud computing applications. Huaxiaxin's artificial intelligence chip solutions cover application fields such as smart driving, smart security, smart home, robots, smart cities, industrial Internet of Things, and smart manufacturing.

GPTX2: General-purpose CPU IP based on the Unity instruction set

Huaxiaxin's CPU IP core (GPTX2) has obvious latecomer advantages at the instruction architecture level. Compared with the mainstream CPU instruction architecture in the market, it has a 20-30% performance improvement (unified flat instruction number, built-in expected support, etc.), and 15-25% area or power saving (simplified instruction encoding, simplified instruction jump logic, etc.). Huaxiaxin's self-architecture 4-core 64-bit superscalar CPU adopts Huaxiaxin's unified heterogeneous computing instruction set and innovative micro-architecture, integrating scalar, vector, tensor and other computing units, supporting a variety of mixed precision calculations, and proposing efficient workgroup group division methods and conditional branching efficient parallel processing methods, adapting to a variety of scenarios and elastic scale increase and decrease. Integrated variable length vector (VLV) computing unit: the world's first variable length vector DSP implemented in an embedded processor, providing excellent vector processing capabilities and natural software compatibility.

Based on GPTX2, Huaxiaxin has customized and developed a high-performance SoC for visual analysis and AI accelerated computing. The core processing units including AI are all based on Huaxiaxin's independent unified instruction set (Unity), which facilitates collaborative computing and can be applied in assisted driving, security monitoring, robotics, industrial inspection and other fields.

AI IP TCX based on the unified instruction set of China Core (Unity)

The domestically produced AI IP-TCX based on the unified instruction set (Unity) architecture with completely independent intellectual property rights is Huaxiaxin's new generation of neural network accelerator IP, which can directly accelerate common convolutional neural networks and support user-customized network and computing types. Huaxiaxin provides customers with customized services based on the AI ​​IP TCX based on the unified instruction set (Unity) of Huaxiaxin, and deep learning acceleration computing IP for AI and 5G/6G communication fields. The customized IP has been delivered to customers and applied to their high-performance artificial intelligence and communication chips.

Brite Semiconductor is a high-tech enterprise that provides customized chip design, production and IP licensing. It provides customers with one-stop services from chip architecture design to finished chip products, and is committed to providing customers with high-value, differentiated solutions. Brite Semiconductor's "YOU" series IP and YouSiP (Silicon-Platform) solutions have been fully verified through tape-out testing and can be widely used in 5G, AI, high-performance computing, cloud and edge computing, networks, the Internet of Things, industrial Internet and consumer electronics. The YouSiP solution can provide prototype design references for system companies and fabless semiconductor companies, thereby quickly winning the market.

YouPHY-DDR is a complete subsystem consisting of a controller, PHY, I/O, and specially developed debugging and testing software. It is developed based on SMIC's various advanced processes from 130nm to 14nm and can support applications such as LPDDR2, DDR3, LPDDR3, DDR4, LPDDR4 and DDR5 combo PHY, supporting data transfer rates from 667Mbps to 4800Mbps.

The unique dynamic self-calibration logic (DSCL) and patented dynamic adaptive bit calibration technology (DABC) can automatically compensate for device performance differences caused by process/voltage/temperature (PVT) fluctuations at the chip level, package level, board level, and memory level, and realize automatic skew complementation between transmitted bytes.

Founded in 2011, Actt is committed to the design and authorization of integrated circuit intellectual property (IP) products and provides one-stop services. In the past 10 years, the company has been based on low-power technology, and has gradually developed and built a product structure dominated by ultra-low power analog IP, high-reliability storage IP, high-performance RF IP and high-speed interface IP. It has applied for more than 200 patents at home and abroad, and has established partnerships with more than 20 wafer fabs around the world. It has developed more than 500 IPs and served hundreds of integrated circuit design companies around the world. Its products are widely used in 5G, Internet of Things, smart home, automotive electronics, smart power, wearable, medical electronics, industrial control and other fields.

The LogicFlash® (MTP) technology solution is easy to integrate on a variety of process platforms (Logic/Mix-signal/BCD/HV/SiGe, etc.); supports high-speed reading (25MHz) and high-speed writing (30us/Byte); can be repeatedly erased/written more than 10,000 times; data can be stored for more than 10 years under high temperature conditions, meeting the AEC-Q100 automotive grade standard. Based on the 0.18um BCD 1P4M process, a 64X16 MTP IP was designed and used by customers in automotive battery management system chips (BMS SoCs). The IP area is 0.59mm^2, supports low-voltage write operations (2.4V~5.5V); has ECC protection function and EDWS error alarm function; can support 150℃ high-temperature read operations; data retention time exceeds 10 years/150℃.

Shenzhen Inruixin Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (IDCHIP for short) is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the design, development, production and sales of integrated circuit chips and semiconductor microelectronics related products. Since its establishment, IDCHIP has bravely undertaken the important task of revitalizing the national integrated circuit industry, always adhering to the development path of independent innovation, and implementing the development strategy of leading technology and quality. At present, it has a number of invention patents and a number of layout copyright design registrations. In the past 4 years, it has successfully transferred advanced processes such as Trench ßpolar, HVBCD, BCD, Trench MOSFET, IGBT, FRD, etc. to domestic wafer fabs, and on this basis, it has designed and developed a series of high-quality LED drivers, audio amplifiers and LED lighting chips.

3W power amplifier chip, AD8002

AD8002 is a Class AB, mono with shutdown mode, bridge audio power amplifier. When inputting 1KHz, 5V working voltage, the maximum driving power is: 3W, (4Ω load, THD<10%), 2W, (4Ω load, THD<1%); the total harmonic distortion noise in the audio range is less than 1% (20Hz·20KHz); the application circuit is simple, only a few peripheral components are needed to provide high-quality output power. The 8002A output does not require external coupling capacitors or boost capacitors, buffer networks, or feedback resistors.

AD8002 sampling SOP package is particularly suitable for low-power, small-volume portable systems. It can be controlled to enter sleep mode to reduce power consumption: 8002A has an internal overheating automatic shutdown protection mechanism. It works stably and has stable unity gain. The voltage gain of the amplifier can be adjusted by configuring external resistors, which is convenient for application. It is a typical chip that is popular in the market and highly recognized by users.

Chengdu Xuanjixingyuan Information Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as: Xuanjixingyuan) was founded in June 2014. It is a leading domestic wireless connection solution provider based on independent semiconductor IP and a subsidiary of Xuanji Information Group (stock code: 300324). Xuanjixingyuan has always focused on low-power Internet of Things, satellite navigation and other fields, providing customers with platform-based, one-stop RF chip customization services and RF IP licensing services. The company's core R&D team is a gathering of elites, with leading talents in the international and domestic RF mixed signal integrated circuit (RFIC) design industry. After years of dedicated investment, it has designed, developed and mass-produced more than 40 chips and IP products, and has accumulated rich experience in chip design, development and mass production.

AGP2142 Sub_G Transceiver IP

The independently developed AGP2142 Sub_G Transceiver IP adopts 40nm CMOS technology and is applied to wireless transmission and reception of 100MHz ~ 960MHz RF signals. It supports TDD half-duplex and complies with the new Sub_G+PLC dual-mode standard promoted by the State Grid. It has great cost and performance advantages. It adopts a unique design architecture and unique low-power technology to achieve ultra-small area and ultra-low power consumption, while the performance indicators reach the international advanced level. It is suitable for the new Sub_G+PLC dual-mode standard of the State Grid and various self-organizing network applications. With the help of the Sub-GHz self-organizing network system, it can not only be used in the construction of smart cities, but also provide intelligent solutions for industry, agriculture and environmental monitoring. At present, it has been authorized to many well-known companies in the industry.

As a professional RISC-V processor IP and chip solution company in mainland China, Xinlai Technology is committed to the development and commercialization of RISC-V processor IP. Since its establishment in 2018, it has gathered an experienced processor R&D team. With full independent research and development, it has successively launched N100, N200, N300, N/NX/UX600, N/NX/UX900 and other series of products covering various scenarios from low power consumption to high performance. Xinlai's processor IP has been authorized to many well-known chip companies for mass production, and the actual test results have reached the industry's first-class indicators.

The 900 series products continue to use the robust Verilog code and take advantage of the modularity of RISC-V to create the first multi-core product to meet customers' high-performance and high-real-time requirements. It is also compatible with the software ecosystem of previous products, and customers can switch to RISC-V products with zero threshold. Customers in large central enterprises, automotive electronics and other fields have completed the introduction.