Research and Development of B5G IoT SoCs and IoT Solution-Building Platforms That Allow for Continuous Evolution

This project seeks to create new infrastructure based on customizable software-defined systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) that will spark innovation in Japan. We interviewed principal investigator Mr. Mototaka Taneya and researcher Mr. Toyofumi Horikawa (Director of Development Department No. 2, Sharp Semiconductor Innovation Corporation) about this project that is being carried out with ambitious goals.

What is the goal of this project?

Taneya: We are working on this project by embracing the ambitious mission of bringing wireless technology back to Japan. Our major goal is to create customizable software-defined systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) with unique features and pursue outputs that would allow these SoCs to be implemented in society and positioned as a new infrastructure in Japan and as important chips for the 2030s, which we hope to achieve through the results of the R&D itself.

What kind of features will these SoCs have?

Taneya: Roughly speaking, they will have two features. First, unlike existing SoCs, the content of this project’s SoCs will be rewritable. In general, large-scale integration (LSI) has the greatest value at the point of purchase by everyone, but going forward, by carefully creating rewritable areas in LSI, we intend to incorporate a mechanism through which the value of communication SoCs themselves grows as they are used by everyone.

The second feature is that by doing this, everyone from university professors to students and from startup companies to large enterprises with new ideas in the telecommunications world will be able to use the platform we have created to test their new ideas, from the domain of communication relatively close to the physical layer to close to the application layer. This will allow the process of standardization to be driven by Japan and enable the platform to also be utilized for sharing technical proposals with the rest of the world.

What challenges do you face and how do you plan to tackle them?

Horikawa: Currently, most chipsets, which are essential for communication devices, are manufactured by major overseas vendors, and people have no choice but to use the devices provided by these vendors. The key is whether we are able to offer devices that can satisfy a wider range of needs with the smallest necessary configuration for an architecture that can be used for longer periods of time, i.e., by achieving the ability to provide updates of functions.

In this research project, we will re-examine hardware and software from the beginning to tackle these challenges and try to create a development platform for new communication devices. At the same time, we will conduct research and development to reduce costs and achieve miniaturization through CMOS millimeter-wave compatibility.

What do you hope to achieve from the results of this project?

Horikawa: We feel that it will be very meaningful to provide a widely accessible basic development platform for next-generation communications. We believe that we can expand the world of IoT communications by providing the platform created through our research not only to manufacturers with expertise in the development of smartphones and other wireless devices but also to ordinary developers so that they can build networks that satisfy the communication requirements of various situations.

Looking back on the past, devices have always been developed based on new ideas whenever a new product or service is launched. We hope to spark innovation in the realm of communications for the Beyond 5G era.

Thank you very much.