At the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas, chip giant Intel announced that it will acquire Silicon Mobility SAS, a semiconductor company focused on electric vehicle energy management; At the same time, a new AI enhanced software defined in car SoC series has been launched; In addition, Intel has launched the industry's first open automotive chip platform. The above actions also officially mark Intel's call to enter the automotive market.
Intel executives stated in an interview with China Business Daily that the current automotive industry is in a crucial period of transformation. The development prospects of this industry are highly anticipated. By 2030, the entire industry will take on a completely new look. In the future, we are likely to witness one or two Chinese car manufacturers enter the world's top five, and some well-known brands will have to bid farewell to the automotive industry. We have seen a rare opportunity to help and ensure that the automotive industry becomes stronger, ensuring that car manufacturers can smoothly navigate this difficult transformation period.
Acquisition of Silicon Mobility
Silicon Mobility is a French startup controlled by venture funds Cipio Partners and Capital-E. Intel did not disclose the price for this acquisition.
It is reported that Silicon Mobility is mainly designed for on-chip system technology and software used to control electric vehicle motors and on-board charging systems. Its main core product is OLEA Field Programmable Control Unit (FPCU).
Semiconductor analyst Wang Zhiwei told reporters that FPCU is a relatively new category. By combining central processing units (CPUs) with flexible logic units (FLUs), digital signal processing (DSP) accelerators, and mathematical coprocessors, FPCU has become the first control chip to provide a hybrid architecture heterogeneous processing platform. This chip can effectively allocate tasks on its different processing resources. Intel's acquisition of Silicon Mobility can bring its technology portfolio into Intel's automotive product line, covering not only high-performance computing but also intelligent programmable power devices to improve AI efficiency.
"Intel is adopting a 'whole vehicle' approach to address the biggest challenges facing the industry, leveraging AI solutions to drive innovation across the entire automotive platform and help the industry transition towards electric vehicles." Jack West, Intel Academician, Vice President, and General Manager of the Automotive Division, said, "The acquisition of Silicon Mobility not only aligns with our sustainable development goals, but also meets the industry's key needs for energy management."
For Intel, this is not the first time they have been searching for "prey" in the automotive industry in the capital market.
In August 2015, Intel acquired Altera, a company focused on developing FPGA chips, for $16.7 billion, focusing on producing autonomous driving FPGA chips. In March 2017, Intel spent $15.3 billion to acquire Mobileye, which provides ADAS technology to major car manufacturers worldwide and is also at the forefront of the industry in high-precision maps and sensors. However, Intel will spin off the two acquired companies in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
However, the development of Mobileye after its spin off has not been smooth, as Mobileye expects a 50% decrease in revenue in the first quarter of this year and significant operational losses. Mobileye stated that it is expected that the company's customer inventory will be in excess. After global supply chain issues have affected the manufacturing industry, car manufacturers have stockpiled Mobileye chips in large quantities to avoid future component shortages.
Regarding this, authoritative analyst Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potter said, "First tier automotive suppliers have been stockpiling components related to advanced driving assistance systems (ADAS) since they struggled to obtain them during the pandemic." "Now they no longer need these components, and first tier suppliers are cutting orders."
Bringing AI PCs to Cars
In addition to announcing the acquisition of Silicon Mobility, during the CES period, Intel announced the launch of the first generation of AI enhanced software defined automotive SOC chips, also known as intelligent cockpit chips. It is reported that the SoC launched is based on the Core chip and adopts the Intel 7 process technology, which can support PC gaming entertainment, AI voice assistant, driver monitoring and other functions.
"Intel is bringing AI PCs to cars." Jack West said that the perfect roadmap for car manufacturers is to combine the AIPC roadmap with the reliability and server functionality of data centers. Therefore, Intel has combined technologies such as virtualization with car specific features (for example, a car can have twelve displays, while a computer may only have two or three displays) and built a new product roadmap specifically for this market.
In the eyes of industry insiders, Intel is leveraging its years of accumulation on the PC end to shift the PC ecosystem into the car cabin.
However, Jack West said, "Cars are neither mobile phones, tablets, nor PCs. Therefore, it is necessary to consider what technologies cars truly need. From a software defined perspective, cars need to integrate workloads through hardware virtualization, without the need for certain silicon features in mobile phones or tablet chips. Therefore, although mobile phones and cars have a natural connection, building the in car experience and architecture on the basis of mobile phone architecture may face challenges. Mobile phones have their own limitations and are very different from in car devices. To ensure that suitable products are provided for in car experiences, it is necessary to have a deep understanding and address these differences."
Moreover, it is worth noting that automotive SOC chips are not frequently updated and replaced like PCs.
"The update speed of Intel's intelligent cockpit chip will definitely be faster than that of its competitors, but it is not as annual as in the PC industry. After all, the entire development cycle of automobiles is relatively long, and there is a longer certification cycle. If the update speed is too fast, it will cause car manufacturers to not keep up. However, our update speed will definitely be faster than the existing cockpit chip update speed, and after each update, our performance will improve. Whether it is the CPU, GPU, or other acceleration units, the performance improvement will be very significant. This is an important direction for Intel to promote."
Regarding this, Wang Zhiwei stated that in the early stages, Intel could gain some market share with its strong technical strength and brand effect. However, as technology deepens, it will face greater competition and challenges, especially from automotive AI chip manufacturers who have already established themselves in the market.
"No, I don't think it's too late." Jack West said, "We believe that by 2035, 80% of cars will be software defined or electric vehicles. Therefore, I don't think we're too late. On the contrary, I believe we brought the necessary technology to the industry at the right time. Intel's new IDM 2.0 strategy is changing the entire industry in a way that fully meets the needs of the automotive industry."