Developed by Telechips, a Chip Design Company
Korea's first homemade microcontroller unit (MCU) for cars has been released. Korea's automobile producers have thus far relied on imports for 97 to 98 percent of their MCU demand.
The 32nm MCU was developed by Telechips, a Korean semiconductor design company. Samsung Electronics began a pilot production of the chip last month.
Industry insiders believe that Samsung Electronics indirectly supported the Korean automotive industry through a small Korean fabless company. They say that Samsung chose the next best option rather than directly developing semiconductors for vehicles as it is a big challenge even for Samsung to directly develop semiconductors for vehicles.
Hyundai Motor and Samsung Electronics are expanding cooperation in automotive semiconductors. The two companies may release a 10-nm automotive AP of their joint development in the future, in addition to MCUs. They are expected to replace several MCUs needed for individual components such as brakes and transmissions with an integrated chip.
The development of an AP that can perform operations that are carried out by dozens of CPUs at once can drastically slash the number of semiconductors in electric vehicles. Semiconductors for electric vehicles are two to three times more than those for internal combustion engine-powered vehicles.