What you need to know
- Huawei is no longer HiSilicon's only customer.
- Huawei's chip arm has launched new 4G communication chips on the open market for AI/ioT application.
- It remains to be seen if HiSilicon will begin selling its Kirin chipsets to Huawei's rival smartphone makers.
Huawei's chip arm HiSilicon has finally started supplying chips to other companies. While the company has so far supplied chips only to Huawei, it launched its first 4G communication chips on the open market during the ELEXCON 2019 electronics show held in Shenzhen, China recently.
As per a report from EETimes, Shanghai HiSilicon, a subsidiary of Huawei that was established in April last year, will be selling chips on the open market. Shenzhen HiSilicon, on the other hand, will be responsible for supplying chips to the parent company.
In addition to selling some of its chips on the open market, HiSilicon has also changed the names of some of its product lines and is expanding its presence to a few new segments. Its Camera product line is now called Smart Vision and will soon expand beyond professional security monitoring to a wider range of perception computing products designed for consumer as well as automotive electronics.
The company has merged its set-top box and TV product lines into a Smart Media product line, which will now focus on all-screen smart terminals and smart home centers as well. Additionally, the fabless semiconductor company is expanding its connectivity business and has set up three business incubation groups. These include a display group that is focusing on devices for large, medium and small screen, an automotive electronics group targeting the connected car market, and a robotics group.
