Semiconductor IP company Qualitas Semiconductor has begun IP development for UCIe (Universal Chiplet Interconnect express), an area currently dominated by global giants Synopsis and Cadence.
Qualitas Semiconductor CEO Duho Kim told TheElec that the company is hoping to produce a prototype in three years and secure global customers.
The South Korean chip IP firm was chosen as the lead institute to develop UCIe by South Korea’s IT ministry.
Qualitas Semiconductor was founded in 2017 and became an IP partner to Samsung Foundry, Samsung’s contract chip production arm, in 2019.
It is providing its IPs for display chipsets and mobile processors to fabless chip companies and chip design houses, companies that work with foundry companies in designing the chips they will produce.
According to Kim, Qualitas Semiconductor began the development of IPs for chiplet interface in May.
The IT ministry-backed project is called the development of Tbps-level interface IP and silicon photonics technologies for the development of chiplet interface usable in AI and automotive SoCs.
Chiplet is a chip that connects multiple dies rather than using one die, or a monolithic die.
The technology is being used widely now to overcome the limits of micro fabrication where chipmakers reaching the limits of how small they can make a single die.
Intel’s mobile CPU Meteor Lake will be one of the first chiplets that will be widely used.
Qualitas Semiconductor said separately that chiplet interface IPs were using technologies from PCIe 6.0 IPs, meaning commercialization was possible.
Additionally, CEO Duho Kim said the company is aiming to secure 64 billion won in revenue by 2026, five times its projected revenue for this year.
