What changes can CITE 2020 bring to China's IC industry?

The 8th China Information Technology Expo (CITE 2020) will be held at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center from August 14 to 16, 2020. It has been one year and three months since the last China Information Technology Expo. The extra three months can be described as windy and rainy. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a certain impact on China and even the world's integrated circuits, and the holding of CITE 2020 has released multiple signals such as the industry's resumption of work and production, steady progress, and the search for new opportunities. Not only the pandemic, but over the past year or so, China's integrated circuit industry has faced a complex international situation as well as risks and opportunities such as new infrastructure and the Science and Technology Innovation Board. CITE 2020, under the interweaving of multiple factors, staged a good show of China's integrated circuits "riding the wind and waves". 

More good "drama"

The first thing about a good show is the drama. A few months ago, most forecasts predicted that the semiconductor market would decline in 2020. In June of this year, the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) unanimously predicted a growth rate of 3.3% in 2020. This month, IC Insights adjusted its forecast for IC growth in 2020 from -4% to -3.0%. Based on WSTS data, the semiconductor market rose 6.4% from January to May 2020 compared with the same period in 2019.

The outbreak of the epidemic, the uncertainty of the international situation and other negative factors, and the response of institutions to this have made the industry sweat, especially the Chinese industrial chain. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, my country produced more than 100 billion integrated circuits in the first half of this year, a year-on-year increase of 16.4%. The explosive growth has proved the resilience of China's integrated circuit industry. The holding of CITE 2020 as scheduled is an optimistic proof like the data, which also makes the mental outlook of integrated circuit manufacturers at this expo different, and the scene after recovery is more interesting.

Another factor is the new infrastructure. The term "new infrastructure" has quickly become the focus since it was proposed in March this year. The central government has set the tone for the new infrastructure of one trillion yuan, emphasizing the need to accelerate the construction of major projects and infrastructure that have been clearly defined in the national plan, including 5G infrastructure, ultra-high voltage, intercity high-speed railways and urban rail transit, new energy vehicle charging piles, big data centers, artificial intelligence, and industrial Internet. Behind all this is the support of the basic and leading industries of integrated circuits. As the foundation and core of the global information industry, chips will usher in unprecedented opportunities. The innovation of integrated circuit exhibitors at CITE 2020 under new opportunities will become a highlight of this expo.

In addition, the capital market integrated circuit industry chain continues to improve as the Science and Technology Innovation Board is opening for one year. The semiconductor industry is a capital, technology and talent intensive industry with large investments and high risks. Previously, the exit path for enterprises was unclear, and it was difficult to go public and acquire companies, which led to domestic investment institutions being very cautious about semiconductors. Therefore, it was very difficult for chip startups to raise funds, and they were powerless to carry out research and development. The Science and Technology Innovation Board provides Chinese integrated circuit companies with a beautiful green channel, and the help of capital makes the research and development investment of Chinese integrated circuit companies more promising. The Science and Technology Innovation Board listed companies participating in this CITE 2020, as well as the companies preparing for listing, their competition in high-end integrated circuits and future product planning are very worthy of attention.

The Chinese integrated circuit industry under multiple factors reminds people of what Intel co-founder Gordon Moore once said: "Reducing expenses is by no means the way for a company to get out of trouble." The collision of crisis and opportunity forces companies to prepare for the future for higher missions such as industrial chain security and domestic substitution. It also makes the expo, which represents the development trend of China's cutting-edge integrated circuit technology, even more exciting, and an IC industry feast full of suspense.

Important exhibitors worth paying attention to

It is reported that CITE 2020 will include China Information Technology Expo, China Electronics Fair, China Internet of Vehicles Industry Expo, and Big Data and Storage Expo. The four exhibitions are expected to cover a total area of ​​nearly 100,000 square meters and nearly 1,200 exhibitors will gather on site. The integrated circuit exhibition area will also gather major manufacturers of semiconductor design, manufacturing, packaging and testing, equipment and materials.

As a leading large-scale integrated circuit enterprise in China and a leading cloud network equipment and service provider for the entire industry chain, Tsinghua Unigroup has confirmed its participation in the exhibition. Tsinghua Unigroup currently owns leading international and domestic chip and related component design and manufacturing companies such as Tsinghua Unigroup, Tsinghua Unigroup Guoxin, Linxens, Yangtze Memory Technologies, Wuhan Xinxin, and Xi'an Tsinghua Unigroup Guoxin. Its products cover mobile communication chips, storage chips, FPGAs, AI chips, high-end router chips, micro connectors, and security chips. In this exhibition, Tsinghua Unigroup participated in the exhibition with the theme of "From Chip to Cloud, Empowering New Infrastructure", which perfectly fits the 5G+IoT spirit of "mass entrepreneurship and innovation" and "Internet+" in this exhibition, and brought a number of high-quality products to the exhibition, such as Yangtze Memory Technologies' 128-layer QLC three-dimensional flash memory and H3C Semiconductor's high-end router chip EasyCore.

MediaTek, the world's fourth largest fabless semiconductor company, will also participate in CITE2020 with its blockbuster products. As a global leader in IC design, MediaTek focuses on technology fields such as wireless communications and digital media. The company's chip integration system solutions, including wireless communications, high-resolution digital TVs, optical storage, high-resolution DVDs and other related products, are leading the market. At this exhibition, MediaTek will showcase a number of 5G SoCs - Dimensity 1000+ and Dimensity 800, both of which use 7nm technology and are used in a number of mainstream 5G mobile phones.

Also confirmed to participate in the exhibition is Lanqi Technology, which is committed to providing chip-based solutions for the fields of cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The company provides high-performance Jintai CPUs, secure memory modules, and memory interface chips to meet the high performance and high security requirements of the new generation of servers.

National Technology, a leading enterprise in the field of information security IC design in China and a national high-tech enterprise, has been deeply engaged in the fields of information security, low-power SOC and wireless radio frequency technology, and its products cover a variety of innovative products such as security chips, general-purpose MCUs, trusted computing, smart cards, and wireless radio frequency. At this expo, relying on 20 years of technical accumulation in the field of information security ICs, National Technology integrated information security, SoC and wireless technologies, and brought a variety of excellent products to the participants, including general-purpose MCU products and industry solutions, security chips and industry solutions, trusted computing chips and industry solutions, wireless radio frequency chips and industry solutions, etc.

Tianjin Feiteng and HuaDa Semiconductor, subsidiaries of China Electronics Information Industry Group Co., Ltd., have also confirmed their participation in the exhibition. The former is mainly committed to the research and development and application of domestic high-performance microprocessor products, providing system integrators with high-performance, low-power domestic CPUs and complete product solutions. It will display a number of desktop terminals and lightweight server products equipped with the domestically developed Feiteng FT-1500A series processor chips.

The latter specializes in integrated circuit design and related solutions. It has advantages in smart cards and security chips, smart card applications, analog circuits, new displays and other fields. Huada Semiconductor's main product categories include: industrial control MCU, power and driver chips, smart cards and security chips, power management chips, and new display chips. Huada Semiconductor vigorously promotes the research and development and application of industrial control, secure Internet of Things, new display and other products, and drives the optimization and upgrading of China's integrated circuits through industrial development.

In addition, the basic electronics exhibition area, which is closely related to the integrated circuit exhibition area, is also full of big names. Heavyweight exhibitors in the discrete device exhibition area include Yandong Microelectronics, Guangdong Kexin, Chongqing Dabiao Electronics, Jincheng Micro, Guangzhou Feihong, etc.; the passive component exhibition area attracted Kedajia Electronics, Shuanghuan Electronics, Yongxing, Torch Electronics, etc.; in the connector exhibition area, well-known exhibitors include Yongerjia, Tongmao Electronics, Hengxing Electronics, Shenyang Xinghua, etc. In the instrument and equipment exhibition area, the 41st Institute, Zhongyi Electric Measurement, Jiujin Technology, Duoyi Electronics, etc. will participate in the exhibition.

Throughout the CITE 2020 integrated circuit and basic electronics exhibition area, manufacturers' product innovation, market insights, and industry chain dynamics all affect the lifeblood of the entire information core product. Under the interweaving of multiple factors, the resilience and confidence in the future demonstrated by enterprises are the most exciting part of this CITE 2020.