Promoting R&D centered on system software, middleware, and application software
High growth in middleware driven by the growing influence of open source and the expansion of IoT and cloud services

The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIT) has unveiled the draft Technology Roadmap 2022, which adds artificial intelligence to the 10 major ICT R&D technology fields. The 10 major ICT R&D technologies selected by the MSIT to strengthen the interconnectedness of science and technology and ICT and to discover new industries are: digital content, convergence services, ICT devices, information security, mobile communications, networks, broadcasting/smart media, radio waves and satellites, foundational SW computing, and software. Accordingly, e4ds News plans to present the future technology development roadmap by introducing the R&D strategies for these fields in sequence. [Reporter Shin Yun-oh]

We are living in an era where securing software-centric industrial competitiveness is inevitable due to the advent of the future intelligent information society and smart industrialization.

There is a growing demand for high-performance, low-power, and large-capacity source software technologies to support ultra-high-speed data processing based on next-generation hardware, such as heterogeneous many-core processors, non-volatile memory, and GPGPU. Additionally, core next-generation mobile software technologies are emerging as they will fundamentally reshape the ecosystems of key national industries, including automotive, aerospace, and defense. The importance of software is increasing as intelligent personalized services, such as multi-image recognition, real-time multilingual interpretation, and high-quality VR technology, expand.

Software development primarily covers system software, middleware, and application software, and includes securing core source technologies and detailed technologies capable of commercialization.

The development of speech-language processing technology to overcome language barriers is a field of applied software. Developed by ETRI Language and speech databases are used as basic data for software development in the fields of speech recognition and language translation, as well as for speech and language processing research.

The global software market is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 28% from $943.3 billion in 2015 to $3,256.9 billion in 2020. Of this, system software will grow from $82.6 billion to $112.7 billion, middleware from $239 billion to $1,514.7 billion, and application software from $621.8 billion to $1,629.4 billion.

Linux is expected to grow by 13.4% annually, and as the influence of open source grows, openness and interoperability are expected to increase. With the expansion of applications in cloud, IoT, and industrial sectors, the related middleware market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 45%. It is expected to be combined with artificial intelligence technology, led by global companies, and also converge with traditional industries such as tourism and automobiles.

The domestic software market is also growing at an average annual rate of 24%

The domestic market also looks promising. It is projected to grow at an annual average rate of 24%, rising from 220 billion won in 2015 to 649 billion won in 2020. While there is a high dependence on foreign products for system software and middleware, some domestic companies, such as Tmax, are performing well. The server OS sector is attempting to enter the cloud-linked service market, while RTOS is seeking to expand into the defense sector. Companies like Naver and Samsung Electronics have launched new products and services based on artificial intelligence and VR into the market.

The domestic market, possessing world-class technologies for mobile, home appliances, automobiles, and finished products, has excellent competitiveness in related ICT industries such as semiconductors and displays, and holds accumulated know-how and commercialization experience in the fields of OS, in-memory databases, and automatic translation.

However, long-term competitiveness is lacking due to insufficient long-term investment in core software technologies and the weakness of the domestic manufacturing industry's core technologies. Furthermore, problems include the difficulty in emerging new services and products due to an ecosystem and regulations dominated by large corporations, as well as the intensifying monopolistic and oligopolistic phenomena resulting from the market dominance of global companies such as Microsoft and Google. In particular, due to the limitations of the domestic market size, small and medium-sized enterprises are unable to overcome their small scale.

Jeon Young-pyo, CP in charge of software R&D, stated, “The software industry is a field that requires the accumulation of know-how over a long period, making entry difficult. Furthermore, there are challenges in creating an initial market due to high user expectations and distrust of domestic software.” He added, “However, business opportunities exist driven by the creation of various new industries through ICT convergence and the shift in the industrial paradigm to a software-centric one, as well as opportunities for active market participation by various companies thanks to government policy support.” He further emphasized that the emergence of next-generation high-performance hardware is expanding the market for innovative products, and that there are opportunities to catch up through open source technologies.

Weak core technologies and deepening monopolies by global corporations... Domestic companies unable to escape their small scale

Accordingly, under the vision of leading future national industries through the development of core software technologies, the government declared the goal of securing core system technologies linked to future hardware technologies, as well as core middleware software technologies to strengthen the competitiveness of smart industries and common-based application software technologies to implement intelligent information technologies.

In this regard, the R&D investment areas designated by the government include: next-generation operating system technology supporting advanced architecture; next-generation memory-based high-performance system software technology; industry-convergence type SW core platforms; high-efficiency application execution support service platform technology; speech and language processing technology to overcome language barriers; and image processing and virtual simulation.

In the field of system software, research and development of heterogeneous many-core operating systems is being conducted as high-performance operating system systems capable of efficiently operating next-generation heterogeneous many-core processors. Basic research on homogeneous many-core operating systems is currently being carried out primarily by domestic research institutions and universities. Chip vendors such as ARM, AMD, and Intel have released heterogeneous many-core processors.

The development of an open electric vehicle software platform in the middleware field is an attempt to reorganize the national key industry ecosystem into a software-centric one by developing core functions of electric vehicles into scalable open software. While domestic SMEs have developed electric vehicles as prototypes and Hyundai Motor has launched commercial electric vehicles, their focus has primarily been on hardware development and assembly.

In the case of Korea, regarding the development of speech processing technology to overcome language barriers in the field of application software, services for limited speech in short sentences centered on Korean have been implemented, and the development of source technology for real-time simultaneous interpretation has commenced. There is a growing need to secure conversational interface technologies, such as AI-based chatbot technology.

CP Jeon Young-pyo stated, “The software R&D promotion strategy is to develop source software technologies to prepare for Industrial Revolution 4.0 and changes in industrial sectors, as well as to advance services utilizing the emergence of new hardware and intelligent information,” adding, “We will expand the application of technology and secure technological leadership through standardization linked to research on source software technologies.”