2015년 정부에서 진행한 <국산 CPU 코어 상용화 과제>가 올해 11월로 마감된다. 계획대로라면 후속 과제로 부족한 점을 개선과 CPU 코어 개발을 진행해야 했으나, 1차 과제에서 중단되는 것이다.
갑작스러운 정부의 발표에 과제에 참여하던 팹리스 업체들 사이에서 아쉬운 목소리가 터져 나왔다. 과제 선정 당시 27곳이 지원할 정도로 참여 경쟁이 뜨거웠듯, 영세한 팹리스 업체는 국가 지원 없이는 운영이 어려울 정도라 개발에 한계가 있기 때문이다.
에서 초소형 CPU 코어를 개발해 국내 CPU 코어의 가능성을 보여준 에이디칩스의 이희 부사장을 만났다.
Vice President Lee Hee Expresses Will to Commercialize Despite Government Project Deadline
Recently released 'ultra-small 32-bit CPU core JUNO0·JUNOS1' for IoT The 'Domestic CPU Core Commercialization Project' conducted by the government in 2015 will end in November of this year. If all went as planned, the follow-up project was supposed to improve the shortcomings and proceed with CPU core development, but it was stopped at the first project.
The sudden government announcement has caused voices of regret among fabless companies participating in the project. Just as the competition to participate was fierce when the project was selected, with 27 companies applying, small fabless companies have difficulties operating without government support, so development is limited.
Here, we met with Vice President Lee Hee of ADCHIPS, who developed an ultra-small CPU core and demonstrated the potential of domestic CPU cores.
Vice President Lee Hee / AD Chips
“After the government announcement, there was a misunderstanding that ‘we are stopping commercialization of CPU cores.’ We had a hard time explaining this to shareholders. The task is finished, but AD Chips is a CPU specialist company. The business will continue. Last month, we also succeeded in commercializing ultra-small CPU cores for the first time in Korea.”
Q. Even in the road show in May, I didn't hear any talk of it being discontinued. Is there a reason why it was suddenly discontinued?
“All the government officials who planned the project 2-3 years ago have changed. It seems that the project has quietly disappeared since the planners are gone. It seems that there were also cases of companies that did not fit well with the CPU cores that had a negative effect.”
Q. There is concern that if the client company discontinues the project, support will also be discontinued.
“Technical support for the CPUs currently in use will continue. However, from the next version, royalties or usage fees will be paid. The price will vary depending on the CPU, but we plan to provide it at less than half the price of ARM.”
"This was an opportunity to expand the base of AD Chips through a government project.
In particular, the promotion of domestic CPU cores is also the biggest result."
Q. What did ADCHIPS gain from the three-year project?
“A CPU core is like a drug that you keep using once you use it. It’s hard to use it once, and once you use it, it’s hard to move on to another CPU. In that sense, it was an opportunity to expand the base of AD Chips. The promotion of domestic CPU cores was also the biggest result. Companies that were known only to a few people were exposed to the media, which became an opportunity to build an ecosystem. Thanks to that, I got to do this interview (laughs).”
Q. Did you gain anything financially?
"When we counted the number of commercialized AD Chips CPU cores, we found that there were over 50 million. Some companies receive royalties. Since CPUs are investments made with a long-term perspective, they do not earn enough to live off of CPUs alone. Instead, they maintain their revenues through MCU sales such as ADStar, CANTUS, and Amazon-ll." 
IoT sensor demonstrated with ultra-small 32-bit ARK core JUNO
AD Chips has developed a C/C++ compiler, C/C++ debugger, and integrated development environment along with CPU cores to a commercial level.
Q. What is the ultra-small CPU core that was commercialized last month?
"Isn't there a growing demand for ultra-small chips used in healthcare and wearables? The 32-bit CPU cores JUNO0 and JUNOS1 are targeting the IoT market. The reason they are ultra-small is because they have 10,000 transistors, which is smaller than ARM's similar models M0 and M0+, which have 12,000. In addition, they are designed as a security MCU by one company because they are equipped with instructions to accelerate encryption processing and can optionally use cache to improve performance. They are planned to be manufactured using Samsung's LF6 process."
Q. What efforts does ADCHIPS plan to make for the domestic CPU ecosystem in the future?
"We have been sponsoring robot competitions using domestic CPU cores for several years, allowing students who participate in the competition to naturally come into contact with CPUs. By the end of this year, we plan to create a textbook and teaching materials using JUNO with one school. If you receive education on domestic CPUs at university, you will be able to use them without any burden when you enter society. We will also continue to strive to improve the development environment.”