Hon Hai Precision Industry, more commonly known as Foxconn, is reportedly buying a Taiwanese chipmaker that specializes in ARM-based SoCs, the applications processors most commonly used in smartphones and tablets. Socle Technology Corporation licenses the ARM Cortex MPCore processors, ARM Mali (GPUs), ARM11MP-S, ARM1176-S, ARM926EJ-S and ARM7EJ-S designs.
According to DigiTimes, Global Foundries is currently a major Socle shareholder and has produced Socle’s chipsets until now. The change in ownership should mean that Socle chipsets can be made at other foundries going forward.
Foxconn is a manufacturing powerhouse best known for iPhone and iPad production. Other customers include Cisco, Dell, Nokia, and Sony. The move into chipmaking means Foxconn will be more vertically integrated than some of its closest competitors. It may also signal that Foxconn sees a growing opportunity to serve Asian clients, as those OEMs are more likely to work with a smaller chipmaker like Socle.
Qualcomm, Apple and Samsung make the applications processors found in most leading mobile devices today, but in recent months Chinese manufacturers have been flooding the market with low-cost competitors powered by chipsets from Asian component suppliers. Chipmakers like MediaTek and Spreadtrum are offering very competitive solutions at much lower price points than the larger suppliers.
According to DigiTimes, Foxconn will appoint Young Liu, currently head of its Innovation Digital System Business Group, to head Socle after the merger. Liu worked at Taiwan’s Princeton Technology prior to joining Foxconn.
Follow me on Twitter.
