Viettel is ready to enter the big playground of the semiconductor industry.

Viettel has successfully designed the 5G DFE chip, the most complex chip in Southeast Asia to date, creating the premise for the Viettel team to be ready to enter the big playground of the semiconductor industry.

The semiconductor technology lab, with its screens full of lines of code and circuit diagrams, is where Viettel Group's first success in the field that the whole world is interested in: semiconductors was marked. Right here, formerly the Microchip Center, the engineering team led by Dr. Nguyen Trung Kien successfully designed the 5G DFE chip, the most complex chip in Southeast Asia to date. This is a 5G radio signal processing chip, with the ability to process 1,000 billion calculations per second. When this small-sized product was displayed at the National Innovation Festival, many people probably could not imagine its full value. And even fewer people know that this seemingly small product is an extremely great achievement of Viettel, the result of over decades of investment by the group in research and development (R&D). Manufacturing a semiconductor chip takes four to six months and involves more than 500 separate steps, from design to manufacturing and testing. Components travel an average of 70 times across countries before reaching the end user. With its high complexity, the semiconductor industry is the core for other important industries such as electronics and digital transformation worth tens of trillions of dollars. In 5G technology, radio processing chips and baseband will be indispensable components in hundreds of millions of base stations that the world needs to deploy new-generation telecommunications networks. Because of this strategic value, the Vietnam Semiconductor Industry Development Strategy to 2030 identifies semiconductors as playing a key role in the digital economy and is given top priority by the Party and State. The goal is that by 2030, Vietnam will have formed basic capacity in all stages from research, design, production, packaging and testing. Ready to enter this challenging playground, Major General Nguyen Dinh Chien, Deputy General Director of Viettel Group, affirmed: "Viettel is the country's leading high-tech group, defining its mission as the main force in developing the semiconductor industry." Lessons from large devices to create small chips To prepare for the new step into the semiconductor field, Viettel's team has gone through a process of accumulating experience from practical lessons. One of Viettel's biggest lessons is accumulating research and development (R&D) capacity. "The semiconductor industry is a difficult industry, requiring in-depth knowledge in the fields of research, design, and production of electronic systems, information technology, and high-tech industry. These fields are the major tasks that Viettel has set for itself throughout its development process over the years," Dr. Nguyen Trung Kien, Deputy Head of the Group's Semiconductor Technology Department, explained the foundation for Viettel to enter the semiconductor industry. Lessons on electronic systems and information technology began in early 2011, when Viettel decided to establish the first specialized R&D department, the Viettel Research and Development Institute. Since 2019, the institute has officially become Viettel High Technology Corporation (VHT). Nine years later, after having gone through research directions on electronic equipment, telecommunications, network technology, microchips, etc., VHT has become the first place to successfully make a 5G call on network equipment researched and manufactured in Vietnam. This result makes Viettel the first network operator in the world and the sixth manufacturer in the world to successfully produce 5G equipment. This success stems from the pre-feasibility study on 5G and research on 4G equipment that Viettel began implementing in 2016.

5G DFE chip designed by Viettel

"The reason Viettel can make 5G chips is because it has researched and understood the principles of 4G and 5G telecommunications devices to be able to 'miniature' large systems into microchip designs," said Dr. Kien. "Up to now, Viettel still has an advantage that no other manufacturer in the world has: the environment for testing and testing real products quickly of a telecommunications operator." With these advantages, Viettel designs chips from the very first steps, including architectural design, basic schematic diagrams, developing core technologies to meet the processing requirements of fields such as telecommunications, information technology, AI, etc., then testing on simulation software and optimizing the design. Being ready to enter new industrial fields, instead of just accepting existing solutions like most network operators in the world, has helped Viettel take the initiative in deploying telecommunications networks and now continues to bring "sweet fruit" by providing Viettel with the expertise to participate in the semiconductor industry. Lessons from the first chip to new growth space "Generations of Viettel leaders have always identified R&D as the foundation for creating sustainable value. Taking on major national tasks and finding ways to solve the most difficult problems is how Viettel finds new growth spaces," emphasized Deputy General Director of the Group Nguyen Xuan Chien. "The development of 5G chips has also brought lessons in research, design and production," Dr. Kien shared. "First of all, it is the experience of developing and expanding the team of semiconductor experts to meet the needs of chip research and design more quickly. In addition, businesses that want to participate in the semiconductor industry also need to participate in the ecosystem through cooperation and research activities to have easier access to knowledge sources and tools." He said that Viettel's semiconductor department is currently working with Viettel Academy to design a new training program as well as update skills training for engineers, with the goal of having 1,000 semiconductor engineers by 2030, including 700 design staff and 300 production staff. Last June, Viettel's semiconductor technology division also had initial discussions with the University of Information Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University) on cooperation in research and training in the field of semiconductor microchips. "Viettel identifies this as a long journey, requiring a reasonable and solid approach in both basic research and business. To develop the semiconductor industry, it is necessary to design and manufacture chips that meet the needs of businesses, domestic electronic systems, and national security needs. This is the foundation for developing advanced, new-generation chip technologies, expanding supply abroad," Major General Nguyen Dinh Chien shared about the group's vision.

Research and development of 4G and 5G equipment has created a foundation for Viettel to participate in the semiconductor industry.

Talking about Viettel's next products, Deputy General Director Nguyen Dinh Chien said that the DFE chip is just the beginning. With the technologies it has mastered, Viettel continues to develop more complex chips, including baseband processing chips - the most complex chip in the 5G telecommunications equipment ecosystem and AI processing chips at the edge. "The semiconductor products that Viettel continues to research and develop will be chips with high difficulty, serving the large market. These two conditions ensure technology development as well as business efficiency," Dr. Kien added. Source: https://tuoitre.vn/viettel-san-sang-buoc-vao-san-choi-lon-cua-nganh-cong-nghiep-ban-dan-20241125152658072.htm