IC design factory Ark Systems has launched strategic transformation to attack the ASIC market. (provided by the company)
[Reporter Zhuo Yijun/Taipei Report] In response to the rapid development of AI and edge computing, the semiconductor industry's demand for customized chips and heterogeneous integration technologies continues to increase. IC design factory Ark Systems has recently launched a strategic transformation and further expanded its business focus from traditional chip design services to AI-driven customized chip (ASIC) design platforms and services. It has successfully obtained a large-scale national R&D subsidy from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, with a total subsidy amount of more than 100 million yuan, making it one of this year's representative large-scale national subsidy programs. The government resource injection received this time will accelerate the development and commercialization process of core technologies and add growth momentum to the company's future operations.
Ark Systems was formerly known as Taiwan Electronic System Design Automation Co., Ltd. As AI applications gradually extend to fields such as robots, drones, industrial automation and smart sensing, various application scenarios have increasingly diverse requirements for chip performance, power consumption and functional integration, and standardized chips are no longer able to fully meet market demand. In order to grasp the development trend of the industry, Ark Systems launched a strategic transformation, using "ARCasic" as its new brand name, and expanded its business focus from EDA Tool R&D and DV verification services to AI-driven customized chip design platforms and services.
Huang Keqin, chairman of Ark Systems, said that the new brand ARCasic combines the concepts of ARC (Architecture, Connection and Bridge) and ASIC (Customized Integrated Circuit), symbolizing the company's commitment to the technical bridge between AI innovative ideas and physical chip implementation. In the future, the company will focus on four core businesses, including AI-driven chip design platform and engineering services, ASIC Turnkey full set of design services, FPGA SiP and heterogeneous integration services, and Edge AI vertical application platform to strengthen technology integration capabilities and expand diverse application markets.
At the time of strategic transformation, Ark Systems has also made important progress in technology research and development, and successfully obtained a subsidy from the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Industrial Upgrading and Innovation Platform Mentoring Program (themed R&D program). The total approved subsidy amount exceeds 100 million yuan, making it one of the most representative large-scale national R&D programs this year. The project will invest in the development of LiDAR chips and systems required for advanced robots and robot dogs, targeting the needs of Industry 4.0 and AI robots for high-precision 3D environment perception. In view of the limitations of existing LiDAR products in short-distance obstacle avoidance, long-distance navigation, power consumption and system integration, a 128-channel LiDAR ASIC and SoC platform with 360°×150° panoramic sensing capabilities will be developed.
In addition to helping to break through the technical bottleneck of domestic independent LiDAR chips, this project will also drive industry chain cooperation in areas such as AI chip design, advanced packaging and photoelectric sensing, and expand the application opportunities of domestic chips in the robotics and smart automation markets. At the same time, through the injection of national-level R&D resources, the cost of developing forward-looking technologies can be shared, which will also enhance the company's R&D energy and industrial cooperation foundation.
Huang Keqin specifically pointed out that the core competitive advantage of Ark System lies in the independently developed VISTA (Verifiable Intent-to-Spec Traceability Architecture) technology platform. The platform integrates AI-assisted requirement analysis, automated design and verification mechanisms, covering modules such as Virtual Platform Builder, SoC Builder and AI Design Verification. It establishes a complete process from customer requirements, specification formulation, chip design to functional verification, improving the consistency between design requirements and final chip functions, thereby reducing development risks, shortening development time and improving cost-effectiveness.
Looking forward to the future, Ark Systems will take the VISTA platform as its core, combine ASIC design services, advanced packaging and Edge AI applications, continue to strengthen its technology layout, establish differentiated competitive advantages, and gradually expand the scale of platform services. After the operation scale and profitability mature, we will then carefully evaluate the plan to enter the capital market and move towards the development goal of a global Edge AI customized chip design platform.
