Qualitas Semiconductor, a semiconductor IP company, has started developing IP for UCIe (Universal Chiplet Interconnect express), which is currently dominated by Synopsis and Cadence, two global giants in the industry. According to Duho Kim, the CEO of Qualitas Semiconductor, the company aims to produce a prototype of UCIe within three years and attract global customers. They were chosen as the lead institute for UCIe development by South Korea's IT ministry.
Established in 2017, Qualitas Semiconductor became an IP partner to Samsung Foundry, Samsung's contract chip production arm, in 2019. They provide their IPs for display chipsets and mobile processors to fabless chip companies and chip design houses.
The development of chiplet interface IPs by Qualitas Semiconductor began in May, as part of an IT ministry-backed project called the development of Tbps-level interface IP and silicon photonics technologies. This project focuses on creating chiplet interfaces that can be used in AI and automotive SoCs.
Chiplet is a type of chip that connects multiple dies instead of using a single die. This technology is increasingly used to overcome the limitations of microfabrication, where chipmakers have reached the boundaries of how small they can make a single die. Intel's mobile CPU Meteor Lake is expected to be one of the first widely used chiplets.
Qualitas Semiconductor has also stated that their chiplet interface IPs leverage technologies from PCIe 6.0 IPs, indicating the possibility of commercialization.
In addition, CEO Duho Kim has set an ambitious target for the company, aiming to achieve 64 billion won in revenue by 2026, which is five times its projected revenue for this year.