The Intel FPGA China Innovation Center, Chongqing

By Keqiao Cheng, EDITOR

Chongqing - In the morning of January 14, some visitors came to the Intel FPGA China Innovation Center (the “Center” for short). The site is located in Chongqing Xiyong Micro-Electronics Industrial Park, Shapingba District.

“It is the second group of visitors we have accepted in today’s morning,” an officer of the Center said. Since the unveiling and opening on December 19 last year, the Center welcomes groups of people every day. The visitors, coming here for study and exchange, are from government departments, innovative businesses, and colleges and universities.

Over 100 FPGA apps presented

As known, FPGA, or field programmable gate array, is an integrated circuit. The Center is the only one in Asia to date as well as the largest one of its kind globally.

In short, the functions and usages of the chips were unadjustable after leaving the factory. By comparison, FPGA chips can do the adjustment. These chips are like a multi-function Swiss army knife. And the latter can be like scissors for cutting, screwdrivers for turning the screw, and even a fruit knife.

In addition, FPGA also boasts other advantages of high performances and low power dissipation. Besides, with the technological development, FPGA performs impressively in Artificial General Intelligence, 5G communication, self-driving, cloud computing, smart terminal, industry, etc.

Cradle for FPGA talents

As a special integrated circuit, FPGA has a limited talent pool for the high level of expertise. What’s worse, the relevant reserve of talents in China is very small.

Thus, one of the primary objectives of the Center this year is building a system for talent training and certification. It also aims to develop professional FPGA training and certification.

Cooperating with local colleges and universities is also one of the significant ways of the Center has in cultivating talent. Meanwhile, neighboring the university town of Chongqing, Xiyong enjoys rich human resources. It is also one of the reasons why the Center is located in this Industrial Park.

Developing FPGA innovation eco-system

In addition to talent cultivation, another objective of the Center is to launch its cloud acceleration platform this March officially.

“By doing this, the Center, located in Chongqing, will spread its influences throughout China”, Zhang Rui, the general manager of the Center, expressed.  Intel is also planning to build an FPGA innovative eco-system based on the Center.

By settling the Center in Chongqing, Yang Xu, Vice President of Intel Corporation and President of Intel China, expressed their intent. The Intel hopes to promote a healthy and vigorous development of FPGA innovation eco-system in China with Chongqing. Meanwhile, their commitment will help Chongqing to seize the first chances.

Source: Chongqing Daily