Is Samsung’s future semiconductor company caught up in ‘RISC-V’? US ‘potential risk’

Samsung Electronics (005930) financial analysischart areaView DetailsThe U.S. government is raising objections to the ‘RISC-V’ standard, which was selected as a future system semiconductor design asset (IP). This is because, unlike existing central processing units (CPUs) such as ARM and x86, RISC-V, which is an ‘open source’ design whose design has been released, can be used in Chinese semiconductor development. There are concerns that the United States may evaluate RISC-V as a “potential risk” and destroy the related ecosystem, which includes Samsung Electronics.

On the 23rd (local time), Reuters reported, “The U.S. Department of Commerce sent a letter to members of Congress stating that it is reviewing the impact of China’s involvement in RISC-V technology on national security.” This is a response to the assertion by 18 members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in November last year that “China must be prevented from gaining an advantage in the RISC-V field and sacrificing U.S. security.” “We are reviewing the ‘potential risks’ and evaluating whether there are steps we can take to effectively address our concerns,” the Commerce Department wrote in the letter, adding, “We must act carefully to avoid harm to U.S. companies researching RISC-V.”

This is interpreted as meaning that China’s RISC-V research is judged to be a potential risk, while also considering ‘profits and losses’ as many American companies are also involved in RISC-V development. Many companies from around the world are involved in the RISC-V project. American companies such as Qualcomm (chairman), Intel, Google, and NVIDIA are also participating, but among the vice-chairmen are Alibaba, and Huawei, Tencent, and ZTE are ‘premium members’. Samsung Electronics remains a ‘strategic member’, one level lower than a premium member. This is the case where Chinese influence is strongest among semiconductor design projects.

This is a result of RISC-V’s origin as an open source project. RISC-V is a new RISC (reduced instruction set computer) type CPU similar to the ARM-based CPU that virtually monopolizes the mobile market. However, there is no need to pay a usage fee to ARM for CPUs based on RISC-V, which has an open design. This is why Chinese companies, latecomers in semiconductor design, are focusing on RISC-V research, dreaming of ‘technological independence’.

The background behind Samsung Electronics’ focus on RISC-V is also the same. The strategy is to reduce dependence on ARM in mobile CPUs such as Exynos, while also creating a turning point in the development of next-generation AI accelerators, as the number of cases where RISC-type CPUs with low power consumption are used for artificial intelligence (AI) calculations are increasing. Accordingly, Samsung Electronics recently organized the Advanced Processor Lab (APL) in Silicon Valley, USA, and is accelerating RISC-V related research.

However, as the U.S. government began to delve into the connection between RISC-V and China, Samsung Electronics’ system semiconductor design strategy appears to have faced a rock from the beginning. Reuters evaluated, “RISC-V, which is used by major Chinese technology companies such as Alibaba, has become a new front in the strategic competition between the United States and China over advanced semiconductor technology.”

< Copyright ⓒ Seoul Economic Daily, unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited >