The 40th edition of the International VLSI Symposium on Technology, Systems and Applications (VLSI TSA) kicked off on April 17 in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The symposium focuses on the convergence of semiconductors and cutting-edge tech trends such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and energy-saving solutions. Esteemed experts from Intel, NVIDIA, Cadence, CEA-Leti, Eindhoven University of Technology, the University of Tokyo, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and many more have congregated to explore the possibilities and challenges of this intersection.
This year's event has provided a platform for experts to share their insights and research findings on the development of semiconductors. Intel Principal Engineer Robert Munoz shed light on the immense potential of chiplets and emphasized the importance of industry-scale reuse, which could revolutionize the way industries collaborate to build future systems. Olivier Faynot, Head of Silicon Component Division at CEA-Leti, delved into the latest developments in power consumption and energy-saving elements for data generation, transmission, calculation, and storage. Frank Wang, Research Director of Deep Learning and Computer Vision at NVIDIA, discussed the impact of AI on human life. John Martinis, Professor of Physics at UC Santa Barbara, who was instrumental in building a quantum computer at the Google AI Lab, elucidated the fundamental concepts of quantum computing, its optimal utilization, and potential developmental trends in the coming decade.
During the symposium, Dr. Shih-Chieh Chang, General Chair of VLSI and General Director of the Electronic and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories at ITRI, discussed how the rapid growth of AI is impacting Taiwan's semiconductor industry. "To achieve rapid AI training and inference, hardware has always been critical. ChatGPT, for instance, relies on thousands of GPUs for model parameter training and high-performance computing to generate reasonable, well-structured responses to given prompts," he noted. "Taiwan will be highly relevant in this, as it has consistently been a leader in semiconductor manufacturing," he said.
Since 2007, the Pan Wen Yuan Foundation has presented the ERSO Award at the symposium to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to Taiwan's IC, semiconductor, electronics, optoelectronics, and display industries. This year the ERSO Award honored three winners, including Chris Lin, Chairman and President of ASPEED Technology; Johnson Lee, CEO of E Ink Holdings Inc., and Alice Chang, Founder and CEO of Perfect Corp. These business leaders were recognized for their remarkable achievements in fabless IC design, electronic paper display, and beauty and fashion tech solutions, respectively.
