To Operate Joint Exhibition Hall with Other SK Group Affiliates
SK Telecom (SKT) announced on Dec. 20 that it will participate in CES 2023, which will be held in Las Vegas from Jan. 5 to 8, 2023, to showcase green ICT that can accelerate progress towards achieving net zero.
SKT will operate a joint exhibition booth with SK Inc., SK Innovation, SK hynix, SK E&S, SK Ecoplant, SK Biopharmaceuticals and SKC under the theme of "SK’s Actions for 2030 Net Zero," which highlights their commitment to reducing carbon emissions by about 200 million tons by 2030.
The joint exhibition booth will cover an area of 1,200 square meters in the Central Hall, and eight SK affiliates will showcase diverse technologies and products under the theme.
SKT will be displaying urban air mobility (UAM), AI semiconductor ‘SAPEON,’ and virtual power plant (VPP) for renewable energy. Its booth will feature a life-sized UAM aircraft to enable visitors to experience how the SAPEON chip can help enhance the UAM aircraft operation, and how VPP will supply power to vertiports.
Upon boarding the UAM aircraft, visitors will find themselves virtually flying over the skies of Busan. SAPEON mounted on the aircraft will support both the pilot and ground control by monitoring the air route, aircraft surroundings, and the situation within the aircraft, and identifying risk factors; and VPP will predict power demand and supply, and supply environmentally-friendly energy to the UAM aircraft and vertiport.
UAM is being highlighted as an eco-friendly means of transportation that can be connected to various means of land transportation.
As a member of ‘UAM Team Korea,’ a public-private consultative body organized by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, SKT is accelerating the commercialization of UAM through cooperation with strong domestic and foreign partners. It signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Hanwha Systems, Korea Airports Corp., and Korea Transport Institute in 2021, and entered into a strategic partnership with Joby Aviation, a global leading aviation company developing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air vehicles, in 2022.
SKT developed an AI semiconductor SAPEON and secured a bridgehead to advance into the global market by establishing SAPEON Inc. in the U.S., through joint investment with SK Square and SK hynix.
SAPEON X220 is optimally designed to process AI tasks faster, using less power by efficiently processing large amounts of data in parallel. It is environmentally friendly, as it is 1.5 times faster and consumes only 80% of the power compared to graphics processing units (GPUs).
Recently, SAPEON X220 was recognized for its excellence by recording 2.3 to 4.6 times higher performance than the existing products in the MLPerf benchmark, a global AI research consortium. SAPEON Inc. plans to release its successor model 'X300' series products with improved performance and computational accuracy in 2023.
SKT’s VPP is a system that enables integrated management of renewable energy produced on a small scale in different regions by individuals or businesses.
In September, SKT signed an MOU with SK Energy, Korea Electrotechnical Research Institute, and startups to develop future virtual power plant technology. By utilizing ICT including AI, SKT plans to build a VPP optimized for producing, storing and trading renewable energy based on the prediction of energy demand and supply.
“At this year’s CES, we will be introducing innovative green ICT that can accelerate our progress towards achieving net zero, and invite the world to join us on this journey,” said SKT.