(iTers News) – The year 2013 would mark a milestone year for Korean chip industry.
Yoon, Sang Jik, vice-minister of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said that exports of system-on-chips, or SOCs would surpass those of memory chips for the first time in history since that country started to export chips.
“System-on-chip, or SOC market is 5 times bigger than memory chips. The government has an action plan to kick-start SOC industry as a next generation of cash cow. SOC is a linchpin of every embedded system for automobile, smart phone, tablet PCs and smart TVs,” said he at the celebration ceremony of the 5th Semiconductor Day of Korea held on Oct. 25 in Seoul.
"The gravity in demand is now rapidly shifting away from PCs to mobile devices. Over the next 5 years, PC market is forecast to grow at an annual average rate of 10%. On the contrary, tablet PC market would leapfrog 200% over the same period, while smartphone market will likely jump by 70%," added he.
He explained that Korea is better poised to tap into worldwide SOC chip market, because the country is home to two of the world's top 10 car makers - Hyundai Motor and Kia Motor.
The booming car industry can lay out the groundwork for Korean SOC chip makers' rapid growth.
Especially, the ministry is zeroing in on power management SOC solution, as these silicon contents are key building blocks for solar cells, gasoline-fueled cars, electric vehicles, and hybrid cars. About 323.0 billion won are to be earmarked to partly fund the development projects.
To jump-start the SOC chip industry, vice-minister Yoon stressed fabless chip makers and foundry chip makers should work together to create a common development platform to design and fabricate SOC chips.
The country also plans to implement international join-development projects of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to develop clean-room equipment for 450mm wafers by working together with a G450C consortium. The consortium was formed by Samsung Electronics, TSMC, IBM and GlobalFoundries.
