A team of twelve leading Japanese players in the automotive, electrical component and semiconductor industries founded the “Advanced SoC Research for Automotive” (ASRA) earlier this month to advance efforts in the development of high-performance digital semiconductors for vehicles.
About ASRA
According to the press release, Japan witnessed the establishment of the ASRA on December 1, 2023, with the primary goal of accelerating advanced vehicle software development.
Members
ASRA built its headquarters in Nagono Campus, 2-14-1 Nagono, Nishi-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.
Meanwhile, presented below are the ASRA members per industry:
| Automakers | Electrical component manufacturers | Semiconductor companies |
| –Toyota –Honda –Mazda –Nissan –Subaru | –Denso –Panasonic | -Cadence Design Systems, Japan -Mirise tech corp -Renesas Electronics corp -Socionext inc., -Synopsys Japan |
Notably, Toyota Motor senior fellow Keiji Yamoto obtained the chair position in the new ASRA research group. Meanwhile, Denso’s senior advisor, Nobuaki Kawahara, is the executive director.
Objectives
The ASRA research group primarily aims to intensify efforts in developing high-performance digital automotive semiconductors (System on Chip, SoC).
The Japanese group will launch R&D initiatives for automotive SoCs through in-vehicle chiplet technology development by 2028, which will enable them to integrate the chips in mass-produced vehicles by 2030.
The Japanese companies will leverage their technological capabilities and experience in their respective fields and cooperate with industry, government, and institutions to boost local and international partnerships in SoC technology.
Why is it significant?
Every automobile employs about 1,000 semiconductors, demonstrating the technology’s increasing significance. However, it must be noted that they differ depending on the application.
SoCs are among the crucial semiconductor types for automotive autonomous driving technology and multimedia systems, as such applications necessitate innovative semiconductor tech to support advanced computing power.
For context, chiplets are in smaller form to collectively form a bigger unit, which aids in cutting development time and costs without compromising performance.
All that said, ASRA will play a significant role in advancing the development of this semiconductor technology to aid Japan in competing with other countries in state-of-the-art software and advanced driver-assistance system ADAS.
