[Editor's note] In 2024, the integrated circuit industry will continue to develop amid changes and opportunities. In the face of the new normal of the global economy, the acceleration of technological innovation and the continuous change of market demand, how can integrated circuit enterprises maintain competitiveness and achieve sustainable development in the new year? In order to deeply explore these topics, Jiwei has launched a series of reports on the outlook for 2025, inviting leading companies in the integrated circuit industry to share their experiences and achievements in the past year, and look forward to future development trends and opportunities.

The corporate perspective of this issue comes from: VeriSilicon Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "VeriSilicon").

VeriSilicon Microelectronics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (VeriSilicon, 688521.SH) was founded in 2001 and is an enterprise that provides customers with platform-based, all-round, one-stop chip customization services and semiconductor IP licensing services based on independent semiconductor IP. According to relevant data, VeriSilicon's IP revenue has ranked seventh in the world and first in China for many years, and the top two in the world in terms of IP types.

At present, VeriSilicon, which has 6 types of processor IP and more than 1,600 digital-analog hybrid IP and RF IP, relies on a huge "IP family" and with the help of its unique Silicon Platform as a Service (SiPaaS) business model, its main business applications quickly cover consumer electronics, automotive electronics, computers and peripherals, industry, data processing, Internet of Things, etc., and its main customers include chip design companies, IDMs, System vendors, large Internet companies, cloud service providers, etc.

The order of the year is replaced, and the chapter is new. What "hardcore" achievements VeriSilicon has made in the past year; In 2025, what kind of "core chapter" will be launched?

"Ascending" competitiveness, the three major markets are blooming

Looking back at 2024, VeriSilicon will focus on the three major markets of "automotive intelligent driving systems, smart wearable devices, and cloud computing based on generative AI", and achieve "upgrading" competitiveness through continuous R&D and innovation, and achieved excellent results as scheduled.

In the field of automotive electronics, VeriSilicon has been working for more than 10 years and is one of its advantageous projects, and many world-renowned automotive OEMs have adopted VeriSilicon's GPUs for in-vehicle infotainment systems or instrument clusters, and tens of millions of cars with built-in VeriSilicon GPU IP have been built-in. VeriSilicon's NPU IP has also been used by many customers. At present, the company's core processor IP is obtaining vehicle certification one by one, and the progress is rapid. These products are widely used in infotainment systems, instrument clusters, surround view, driver status monitoring systems, ADAS, autonomous vehicles, and more.

At the same time, VeriSilicon's design process has obtained ISO 26262 automotive functional safety management system certification, which can provide one-stop customization services for global customers to meet functional safety requirements of automotive chips in terms of chip and IP design and implementation, software development, etc. In addition, VeriSilicon has launched the overall design process of the functional safety (FuSa) SoC platform, as well as the functional safety solution of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) based on the platform, and built a complete autonomous driving software platform framework.

In the field of smart wearable devices, VeriSilicon has made full use of its advantages in low-power technology to actively deploy smart glasses, smart watches/bracelets, and Bluetooth headsets, and verified VeriSilicon's nano and pico series of low-power IP combinations for low-power applications in chips and terminal products.

It is worth mentioning that VeriSilicon already has an ultra-low-power, high-performance chip design platform for AR/VR glasses applications, which can create products that adapt to different power modes and meet the needs of ultra-lightweight real-time online, low-power, and full-performance full-scene applications. At present, more than 20 core smart watch chip companies have adopted VeriSilicon's IP, which is widely used in various mainstream smart watch brands on the market. In addition to customizing a chip for AR glasses for a well-known international Internet company, several of the world's leading AR/VR glasses manufacturers are cooperating with VeriSilicon.

Focusing on its own low-power IP, VeriSilicon has launched a series of integrated wearable health monitoring platform-level solutions from chip design to reference applications, which can provide customers with different levels of licensing and custom design services, including BLE protocol stacks, software SDKs, algorithms, smart hardware and applications, etc., which is expected to promote the wide application of wearable devices in the field of health.

The AI craze is surging, and chiplets are accumulating

In the past year, the AI war has been fierce, and the competition between the major giants can be described as an undercurrent. In the era of large models, VeriSilicon has given strong support to the demand for massive computing power. According to the data, in the field of AI computing, VeriSilicon's world-leading NPU IP has been adopted in 142 chips from 82 customers, covering more than 10 market fields such as servers, automobiles, tablets, smartphones, smart homes, and wearable devices, and more than 100 million AI chips integrating VeriSilicon's NPU IP have been shipped.

VeriSilicon's latest-generation NPU architecture is also optimized for Transformer models, which can efficiently run large language models such as Qwen and LLAMA, as well as AIGC and multimodal models such as Stable Diffusion and MiniCPM. In addition, its NPU is also deeply integrated with its own many processor IPs to form a number of AI acceleration subsystem solutions, including AI-ISP, AI-Display, AI-VPU, AI-GPU, AI-DSP, based on its programmable and scalable characteristics, as well as its own innovative NeuroBrick hardware acceleration solution on chip, VeriSilicon's NPU IP can also greatly optimize the PPA characteristics of customer chips for different application scenarios.

In addition, VeriSilicon's GPU IP is widely used in data centers, automotive electronics, wearable devices, PCs, and other fields, and more than 2 billion customer chips with built-in VeriSilicon GPUs have been shipped worldwide. With about 20 years of experience in Vivante GPU R&D, VeriSilicon's GPGPU IP delivers computing power from low-power embedded devices to high-performance servers, redefining the computing market with highly scalable IP cores to meet a wide range of AI computing needs. At present, VeriSilicon's GPUs and GPGPU-AI IP have been licensed multiple times around the world, and have been used in many high-performance computing products.

While the three major markets of "automotive intelligent driving systems, smart wearable devices, and AI computing applications" are advancing simultaneously, VeriSilicon also maintains a leading position in the chiplet field. As early as 5 years ago, VeriSilicon laid out the research and development of chiplet technology, and has achieved a leading position in the two major tracks of chiplet-based AIGC big data processing and high-end intelligent driving: it has helped customers design Chromebook chips based on chiplet architecture; Help customers design 2.5D CoWos packages for AIGC chips; Design and development of UCIe/BoW-compatible physical layer interfaces for die-to-die connection; Join forces with the industry leader in chiplet chip solutions!

It is expected that VeriSilicon is actively promoting the R&D project of chip platform based on Chiplet architecture for intelligent driving system and AIGC high-performance computing, and corresponding technical achievements will be released one after another this year.

High-quality students solve the problem of "going to sea", 2025 "core trend".

The question of "going global" is no stranger to VeriSilicon, which has more than 35% of its revenue coming from overseas. Over the years, Shanghai-based VeriSilicon has adhered to international operations, successively built 8 design and R&D centers in China and the United States, and set up 11 sales and customer support offices around the world, distributed in China (Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Haikou, Hong Kong, Taipei), the United States (San Jose, Austin, Dallas), Nice (France), Munich (Germany), Seoul (South Korea), Tokyo (Japan) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). In the past year, VeriSilicon has actively expanded its business footprint: adding a new R&D center in Vietnam and making breakthroughs in new markets such as India, Turkey, and Egypt. In the future, the company's business development will be adjusted in a timely manner according to the focus of the technology industry in various regions of the world.

Behind the global layout and the courage to "go global" is the support of VeriSilicon's large-scale R&D team. By the end of 2024, VeriSilicon has a total of 1,800 R&D personnel, accounting for 89.37% of R&D personnel, 88.61% of R&D personnel with master's degree or above, 26% of employees with more than 10 years of service in Chinese mainland, and the average age of employees is 32 years old.

Entering 2025, in the face of the new development trend and market changes of the integrated circuit industry, VeriSilicon said that in 2025, in addition to AIGC applications and the automotive field, the company is also optimistic about the development of the AI Pad for education and the incremental market of AI/AR glasses. In addition, VeriSilicon will continue to upgrade its core competitiveness, focus on promoting chiplet technology and industrialization, achieve competitiveness upgrading, and carry out technology or strategic mergers and acquisitions according to market changes.

In 2025, VeriSilicon's "Core Fire is Burning the Plain"!