Baikal Electronics will develop microcontrollers

Design Center “Baikal Electronics” (the line of Baikal processors) is looking for specialists to develop microcontrollers. Demand for Russian devices will grow from the military-industrial complex, drone and electronics manufacturers, who expect to receive the status of domestic products for their products at the expense of components, experts say. But Baikal Electronics may face competition – a number of large Russian developers are engaged in microcontrollers, including Mikron and Milandr.

Kommersant discovered on the job search portal HH.ru that the processor developer Baikal Electronics JSC published vacancies for an “engineer-programmer of microcontrollers” and “leading programmer of microcontrollers”. It follows from the vacancies that applicants will have to develop a software architecture for microcontrollers, software modules and protocols for the interaction of peripheral devices, etc. The fact that Baikal Electronics plans to develop and produce microcontrollers is also known to Kommersant’s interlocutor in one of the developers components.

In Baikal Electronics, Kommersant specified that “vacancies are open both for current projects and for new areas, which are considered as possible vectors for product development.”

Kommersant’s interlocutor in the market believes that Baikal Electronics will deal with microcontrollers for civilian equipment – meters, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, etc. on the open RISC-V architecture. A Kommersant source in a microelectronics developer believes that Baikal Electronics will place an order for production at Chinese factories: “They have more advanced technologies, most of the microcontrollers being developed in Russia are now being produced there.”

According to the BusinesStat report from 2022, in Russia, at the end of 2021, a total of 383 million processors and controllers were sold, 95% of the market was imported. The largest developer of microcontrollers in Russia is JSC PKK Milandr, specialized solutions are developed and produced by NIIMA Progress, Mikron, etc., says Ivan Pokrovsky, Executive Director of the Association of Russian Developers and Manufacturers of Electronics.

In November, 2022 it became known that Mikron will invest 300 million rubles. in the release of RISC-V microcontrollers for IoT. Then the deputy director of “Milandra” Sergei Shumilin estimated the demand for them at 200 million units per year (see “Kommersant” dated November 7).

Before the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, Baikal Electronics planned to invest 23 billion rubles. in the development of new chips of the Baikal line and expansion of their production from 130 thousand pieces in 2021 to 600 thousand pieces in 2025 (see “Kommersant” dated July 2, 2021). But then the Taiwanese TSMC refused to cooperate with the Russian design center. As of February 2022, TSMC released but did not package 150,000 Baikal Electronics chips; another 50,000 chips were in production at that time.

One of Kommersant’s sources sees several reasons for Baikal Electronics’ interest in the development of microcontrollers: “They need to load the team with new projects, and civilian microcontrollers are a profitable segment in which other market participants are showing interest. For example, NM-Tech, as far as I know, received subsidies from the Ministry of Industry and Trade under Decree No. 1252 for the design of such components.” This information was confirmed by a Kommersant source close to NM-Tech.

Promobit CEO Maxim Koposov considers the development of microcontrollers a promising segment: “Demand for such components is growing from military-industrial complex enterprises, manufacturers of drones, auto components and Internet of things devices: according to current legislation, microcontrollers manufactured in China, but developed in Russia, will be considered domestic. Therefore, such components may be of interest to manufacturers who want to score points to obtain the status of a domestic product.”

Nikita Korolev