Technavio: Robots and 5G will boost single-chip systems industry

The semiconductor industry segment related to the production of single-chip systems (SoC) expects significant growth by 2026, with an estimated industry turnover of $6.85 billion by the end of that period, according to the consulting company Technavio.source image: geralt/pixabay comOne-chip system (chipset) is usually a compact, versatile semiconductor solution that includes everything you need to run a \"basic\" computer - this leads to a wide spread of such solutions in the market for mobile communications, Internet of things solutions and other portable electronics.Judging by the data presented in the report Technavio, which studied the information on many leading manufacturers of chipsets - Apple, Broadcom, Intel, Nvidia, TSMC, Toshiba and others, According to the company's experts, robots are used today in almost all spheres of life, so compact, specially designed chipsets are ideal for the automotive industry, electronics in general, medical systems and defense industry.
In addition, there is already a growing demand for robots, both those designed to help people and fully autonomous models.Image source: mariananbu/pixabay.comAnother factor in the growth of the SoC market will be the 5G industry.
According to Gartner statistics, revenue from the corresponding communication infrastructure from 2020 to 2021 grew by 39%, amounting to $19.1 billion.According to Technavio, one of the main beneficiaries of this will be the industry of single-chip systems.The company predicts geographically ¾ of the growth will come from the Asia-Pacific (APAC), where many semiconductor manufacturers are already based.
Growth in the APAC is driven by both the widespread adoption of 4G LTE and the continued commercialization of 5G.
Although the report mentions that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the chip industry, the mass vaccination in APAC has enabled a return to normal production for the most part (with some exceptions).
However, the report does not have time to take into account the recent events related to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the sanitary restrictions in China, which seriously affected the production, because of which the technology giants had to seriously reduce their profitability forecasts.One of the main problems of the future the company sees the domination of large customers in the market of semiconductors - they displace smaller companies which do not have enough resources to compete, due to which the contract manufacturers by default give priority production capacity to large businesses.
As a result, smaller customers still at the beginning will lose to the giants in quality, manufacturability and production cost.
Additionally, the problem is exacerbated by disruptions in supply chains and shortages of some materials.
However, it is the big players that ensure the rapid progress of technology in the chipset market.

Uber to begin robotic food delivery in California

Uber Technologies said Monday it will launch pilot delivery services using autonomous vehicles in two California cities.
The company will also add a map of electric charging stations to the global version of its driver app.Image source: UberThe announcement came as part of Uber's annual event reporting on changes to citizen transportation and meal delivery mechanisms, including app updates.
One version of the service will use autonomous cars, the other - small robots moving on sidewalks.
Both services will be available to Uber Eats users in California's Santa Monica and West Hollywood.The pilot project involving autonomous cars is being done in conjunction with Motional, a company jointly owned by Hyundai and Aptiv.
The sidewalk robots are provided by Serve Robotics, a company affiliated with delivery company Postmates, acquired by Uber in 2020.In both cases, the service is closely monitored by human operators and, according to Uber, it will be some time before the technology is adopted on a larger scale.
For now, there are very few fully automated driving system projects in operation in the U.S.A.
On Monday, Uber also announced the release this summer of a map showing the locations of electric charging stations in its driver app.
Charging stations from around the world will also be mapped at a later date.
This is expected to encourage drivers to switch to electric cars.
Uber itself plans to use only electric vehicles on its platform in the U.S., Canada and Europe by 2030, and the lack of the necessary number of charging stations is cited as one of the main obstacles to the spread of the technology.