The government of Xian city of Shanxi province announced that it signed 10 project agreements with 10 semiconductor companies including Loongson Zhongkou (Loongson), AMEC, and Silan (士兰 微) at the 2018 Xian Integrated Circuit Industry Forum held on February 22. The project details have not been disclosed.
The signatory Xian Gao Xing-gu is a state-level high-tech development zone in China, and is also home to a Samsung Electronics Semiconductor factory. Gao Xing-gu is an abbreviation of Gao New Technology Industry Development Zone. It is scattered throughout China as a development area specialized in various fields. At present, there are 169 state-level Gao Xin-gu (including Suzhou Industrial Park).
Haojia (郝 跃), a Chinese Academy of Sciences warrant officer, Co-CEO of SMIC Chao Haijun, Chairman of AMEC Yin Zhiwei, and Chu Ching Co-CEO of Unisoc (former Spreadtrum + RDA) gave a lecture on the forum. Currently, there are 785 Chinese Academy of Sciences warrant officers. The warrant officer title is the highest academic title in the Chinese scientific field. Assuming that the populations of China and Korea are 1.4 billion and 50 million, respectively, the number of warrant officers would be less than 30 people in Korea.
Loongson Zhongkou, one of the companies that signed the project, is a CPU maker. It is launching a product under the brand name of 'Loongson', the company's English name. In 2001, it started as the Computing Research Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2010, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing City invested as major shareholders and established the corporation. Loongson Zhongkou's 'Zhongkou' is like the Zhongkou of Zhongkou Yuan (Chinese Academy of Sciences), short for Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Chinese equipment maker AMEC supplied etching equipment to SK Hynix in Korea. AMEC etching equipment of AMEC, which has been working with Taiwan foundry maker TSMC for 28 nanometers (nm), has recently passed 5nm certification. Local media Aiji Wei said, "It is a top-tier etching equipment company of the same level as US LAM Research and Applied Materials, Japan Tokyo Electronics (TEL), and Hitachi."
Silan, a company listed in China's Shenzhen Stock Exchange, built an analog and compound semiconductor production line in Xiamen last October with a total investment of 3.6 trillion won (22 billion yuan). In 2017, it recorded sales of 2.7 billion yuan (440 billion won).
Other companies that signed the project are as follows. △ Saphlux (赛 富 乐 斯) △ WaferChina (唐晶量子) △ Convert (锴 威) Semiconductor △ Prisemi, 导 导 △ FaSoftware (上扬) △ Altran △ Realware
