Alchip

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Alchip Technologies
Company typePublic
TWSE: 3661
IndustrySemiconductors
Founded2003
Headquarters
Key people
Kinying Kwan (Founder and Chairman), Johnny Shen (CEO)
ProductsASIC
Number of employees
400+ (2019)
Websitewww.alchip.com

Alchip is a fabless semiconductor company founded in 2003 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Alchip specializes in the design and manufacture of digital CMOS ASICs.

Location[edit]

Alchip's headquarters is in Taipei, Taiwan. Alchip also has locations in Santa Clara, California in the US, Shin-Yokohama in Japan, Shanghai, Wuxi, Hefei and Jinan in China, and Hsinchu in Taiwan.[1]

History[edit]

In April 2002 Cadence acquired Simplex Solutions, an ASIC design services company.[2] Alchip was founded six months later by Kinying Kwan and other former Simplex employees as a fabless ASIC supplier. Simplex Solutions had designed the graphics ASIC for Sony's PlayStation 2 game console.[3] Sony became an important customer of Alchip as well. In 2006 80% of Alchip's revenues were from Japan, and most of that was from Sony.[4] In September 2008 Alchip's relationship with Sony took another step forward when it was announced that it would partner with Sony's microelectronics to provide packaging solutions for Alchip's customer's ASICs.[5] Over the past decade, Alchip has received investments from several tech heavyweights, including Global Future Group, Investar, AcerVC, Cisco Systems, C2Capital, and notably Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the biggest contract chipmaker in the world, owns a 20% stake in the firm.[3][6][7] On December 23, 2010, Alchip went public and was listed on the Taiwan Emergent Market under the stock ticker number 3661. On October 28, 2014, Alchip debuted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange's main market. This move opened Alchip to institutional and private investors and boosted its profile within the industry.[citation needed]

In April 2021 the US Government blacklisted seven Chinese supercomputing companies due to alleged involvement in supplying equipment to the PLA, Chinese military–industrial complex, and WMD programs. In response Alchip and TSMC suspended new orders from Chinese supercomputing company Tianjin Phytium Information Technology. Phytium accounted for 39% of Alchip’s revenue.[8]

Products[edit]

Alchip provides physical design, design for test insertion, package design, product qualification, IP licensing, and manufacturing services for digital CMOS ASICs. Alchip has announced products in 180 nm, 130 nm, 90 nm, 65 nm, 40 nm, 32 nm, 28 nm, and 16 nm process technologies. Customer ASICs have been announced in a wide range of applications including medical image processing, supercomputing, crypto-mining and networking.[9][10][11]

Manufacturing[edit]

Alchip adopts an open foundry model and outsources semiconductor manufacturing to TSMC, UMC, SMIC, and Samsung. It also works with captive fab such as SONY and Toshiba. As of 2014, over 85% of Alchip projects are outsourced to TSMC. Alchip also outsources packaging, assembly, and testing. Alchip owns a Verigy 93K tester platform on which it performs test development and the test of ASIC prototypes.[12]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "AlChip Global Locations". Archived from the original on 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
  2. ^ "Cadence Design System to purchase Simplex Solutions for 5.71 times revenue". Weekly Corporate Growth Report. 2002-05-02.
  3. ^ a b "InsideChips" (PDF). March 2004. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
  4. ^ "Alchip Leverages Success in Japan to Enter Global Market". June 2006. Archived from the original on 2011-09-27.
  5. ^ "Alchip Partners with Sony for SoC and ASIC". 2008-09-17. Archived from the original on 2011-07-10.
  6. ^ "TSMC 6-K August 2008 pg. 42". August 2008.
  7. ^ "About Alchip > Investors". August 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
  8. ^ "Taiwan says its chip firms will adhere to new US rules blacklisting China supercomputing entities". www.reuters.com. Reuters. 14 April 2021. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  9. ^ "Alchip Technologies selected to provide Faster Time-to-Market TurnkeySolution for Mitsubishi Electric Corporation". 2004-10-04. Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
  10. ^ "Alchip Delivers First Silicon Success to TeraRecon's XTrillion Processor Chip". 2006-04-20. Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
  11. ^ "Alchip Unveils First Silicon Success of the SING Processor for World's Fastest Supercomputer Developed by the University of Tokyo". 2006-12-12. Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2008-10-07.
  12. ^ "Alchip Selects Verigy V93000 SOC Series Pin Scale as Next Generation Test Platform". 2007-09-15.

External links[edit]