Issue #32 | Particle accelerator-driven chip plants, big tech further expands abroad, Qualcomm x Tencent, cross-sea bullet trains, & solar telescopes.

Welcome to Serica’s weekly tech brief, where we bring you the latest news from one of the world's most dynamic and rapidly evolving tech scenes.

?? China set to build giant chip factory using particle accelerator

China is exploring new avenues to bypass restrictions on lithography machines, which are used in the production of microchips. Using particle accelerators to create a novel laser source, researchers are laying the foundation for the future of semiconductor fabrication.

Using a new method called steady-state microbunching (SSMB) the team at Tsinghua University believes this could be employed to mass produce high-quality microchips and reduce dependence on lithography systems from ASML. Plans are now underway to construct a particle accelerator with a circumference between 100-150 meters – roughly the size of two basketball courts. The news comes a month after Huawei's surprise chip breakthrough and is further evidence of China's increasing resolve to produce its own world-class semiconductors, it is likely we will see more similar developments in the next few months.

SOURCE: Interesting Engineering

?? Xiaomi expands production footprint in India

Smartphone and electronics giant Xiaomi has partnered with Padget Electronics (a subsidiary of Dixon Technologies) to assemble products at a local facility in Noida, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The manufacturing alliance with Padget is the latest in a series of companies including Apple that are boosting production in India to meet growing demand in the world’s second-biggest smartphone market behind China and benefit from grants and subsidies from the 'Made in India' policy.

Xiaomi also plans to add more physical stores (currently has 18,000) and deepen ties with local manufacturers in a bid to capture greater market share (currently 15%), resolve its ongoing legal battle with Delhi, and diversify away from mainland China. Expect more smartphone and electronics giants to follow suit in the coming years.

SOURCE: SCMP

?? China launches first cross-sea bullet train

China launched its first high-speed rail line that will travel across several bays and skim along the coast of the southeastern province of Fujian near the Taiwan Strait, state media reported on Thursday. It is China's first cross-sea, rapid line with bullet trains that will travel over bridges across three coastal bays and hit top speeds of 218 mph, with travel time between Fuzhou and Xiamen, an economic hub and popular tourist destination, will be under an hour.

The new trains come with the latest sensor-based ventilation systems which can automatically open or close windows according to changes in temperatures, winds, and rainfall which is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 13 metric tons per year. Despite having a whopping 42,000km of operational high-speed railway (including 3,200 operating at 218 mph) China shows no slowing down in expanding and upgrading its high-speed railway infrastructure.

SOURCE: Reuters

?? Aliexpress launches 5-day global delivery

Consumers in the UK, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, and South Korea will now receive their parcels within five working days thanks to a joint initiative between Alibaba's cross-border e-commerce platform Aliexpress and its logistics unit Cainiao. The five-working-day conveyance would be 30% faster than the industry standard and the service is expected to be rolled out in more countries in the coming months.

This initiative comes weeks after Cainiao launched half-day delivery services across eight major Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Shenzhen. Faster delivery is seen as essential to fend off the next-generation commerce platforms such as Temu, Shein, and Tiktok Shop which has created a tough new battleground for China’s e-commerce giants, as they jostle to win both local and overseas consumers

SOURCE: SCMP

?? Qualcomm and Tencent Music partner to launch AI-powered premium sound quality

Qualcomm and Tencent Music announced a collaboration to introduce Snapdragon Premium Sound Quality. Leveraging the AI computing power of the Qualcomm AI Engine, Snapdragon Premium Sound Quality combines with QQ Music’s (China's number one music streaming app) AI model algorithm on the device side, providing users with a more layered and in-depth listening experience, according to the company.

Specifically, it enhances the speed and efficiency of audio encoding, audio decoding, and audio detail restoration. Snapdragon Premium Sound Quality is now available as an audio option for paid QQ Music Super VIP Members, while users of smartphones equipped with Snapdragon mobile platforms also have exclusive access to the service for a limited time. This comes just a few weeks after Qualcomm announced a partnership with Baidu to develop XR technology, ARM's public commitment to China, and Google's annual developers conference in Shanghai. This is further evidence that despite geopolitical tensions and economic headwinds, US tech giants remain committed to the Chinese market.

SOURCE: Qualcomm (in Chinese)

?? China officially completes the world's largest solar telescope array

The Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope (DRST), a solar telescope array in southwest China, passed key testing on Wednesday, marking the official completion of the world's largest synthesis aperture radio telescope. The Daocheng Solar Radio Telescope (DSRT) consists of 313 dishes, each with a diameter of 6 meters, forming a circle with a circumference of 1.95 miles with a 100m calibration tower standing in the center of the ring.

Its main task is continuous monitoring of the sun and observing solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). It will also aid research into monitoring and early warning methods for pulsars fast radio bursts, and asteroids. This is part of China's increasingly large and sophisticated space technology infrastructure which also includes the the FAST telescope (China Sky Eye) in Guizhou, China's deep-space observation radar facility (China Compound Eye) in Chongqing, and Sanya Incoherent Scatter Radar in Hainan.

SOURCE: People's Daily

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