NXP CTO Computex speech: Robots lead the future of the semiconductor industry

Lars Reger, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of NXP Semiconductors, delivered an inspiring speech at Computex Taipei 2024. He began by sharing his personal career journey, delved into the future trends of the semiconductor industry, and elaborated on NXP's important role in it.

Personal journey and the development of NXP

Lars Reger reviewed his experience of joining NXP in 2008. At that time, NXP had just separated from Philips Semiconductor and encountered the global economic crisis. Reger admitted that he thought he had made the worst decision in his career and was even ready to pack up and go home. However, with perseverance and hard work, he witnessed NXP's rise from adversity and became a technology giant with 35,000 employees, including 12,000 engineers. He particularly mentioned that NXP's market value recently exceeded US$70 billion for the first time, which is not only a number, but also an affirmation of the company's future potential.

Future Outlook for the Semiconductor Industry

Reger analyzed in detail the impact of global trends on the semiconductor industry. He pointed out that although the world is undergoing tremendous changes, the driving factors for innovation have remained largely unchanged since 2008: climate change, natural resource shortages, population aging, urbanization, global connectivity, and safety and security needs. These trends provide broad opportunities for the development of technology and business.

He emphasized that NXP's success is not only the company's own achievement, but also the result of the cooperation of the entire ecosystem. NXP's close cooperation with suppliers, partners and customers has jointly promoted technological progress and market development. He especially thanked the partners present and emphasized their important role in NXP's growth.

Applications and advantages of the robotics industry

Lars Reger emphasized the application and advantages of NXP in the robotics industry in his speech. He pointed out that the key to NXP in the robotics industry lies in its unique "brain transplantation" concept, which is to modularize the different functions of the human brain and apply them to robotic systems.

The concept of brain transplantation

The "brain transplant" concept is to divide the functions of the human brain into three main parts and apply them to the design of robots:

Reflection system

This part corresponds to human reflex actions and is responsible for immediate reactions and basic operations. It is similar to the rapid response system in robots, which can respond quickly in emergency situations, such as avoiding collisions or correcting postures.

Real-time systems

This part is responsible for complex real-time control tasks such as heartbeat regulation, body temperature control, and posture stabilization. Corresponding to the robot's advanced control system, it can handle complex motion control and environmental interaction tasks to ensure that the robot can operate smoothly in various situations.

Non-real-time systems

This part is the part of the human brain responsible for creative and strategic thinking. For robots, this part mainly involves advanced AI processing and machine learning algorithms for complex decision-making and prediction tasks. For example, path planning and complex environment perception tasks in autonomous vehicles.

By combining these three parts, NXP has successfully built an efficient, safe and reliable robot system architecture. This modular design allows the robot to efficiently handle different types of tasks while ensuring safety and reliability when performing tasks.

Technological innovation and application

Reger detailed NXP’s innovations in enabling hyper-sensing capabilities for robots:

Ultra-Wideband Technology (UWB)

Through ultra-wideband technology, NXP has achieved precise object positioning and interaction. For example, when a user approaches a car, the car can automatically unlock without any additional user operation.

Car-to-car communication

Through vehicle-to-vehicle communication technology, vehicles can share traffic information in real time. For example, emergency braking information of the vehicle in front can be instantly transmitted to the vehicle behind, improving traffic safety.

High-resolution radar

NXP's high-resolution radar technology enables environmental perception in adverse weather conditions, such as rain, fog and snow. Radar can provide X-ray-like vision, ensuring that vehicles and robots can operate normally in various environments.

Common language standards

NXP has worked with industry partners to develop a universal language standard that enables seamless communication between smart devices. The introduction of this standard allows smart home devices to understand and collaborate with each other, thus realizing true smart homes and smart cities.

The importance of collaboration and ecosystems

Reger stressed that technological progress cannot be achieved without the support of the ecosystem. Close cooperation among industries, academia and government is the key to promoting technological development. He compared this process to the moon landing plan, which is difficult to achieve with the power of one country alone, and global cooperation is essential. He particularly pointed out that NXP's success is inseparable from close cooperation with partners around the world.

Conclusion

At the end of his speech, Reger called on everyone to work together to realize a better vision for the future. He believed that through cooperation and innovation, the semiconductor industry will usher in a brighter future.

It is worth noting that Brighter Together is also NXP’s new corporate slogan.