New rules aim to improve testing credibility as homegrown chips move into mass production and wider vehicle applications.
China has issued five industry standards for assessing organizations involved in auto chip design, testing and certification, as domestically developed automotive-grade chips enter mass production and wider commercial use.
The standards, issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation earlier this month, will take effect on Oct 1. They include one standard setting general assessment requirements and four others addressing the capabilities of chip design organizations, certification bodies and testing institutions. One of the four focuses on testing institutions' capabilities to evaluate auto computing chips.
Unlike product standards, the five documents do not set technical requirements for individual chips. According to the SAMR, they are designed to ensure automotive chip certification reviews are conducted professionally and consistently and that their results are authoritative.
Ji Xuehong, director of the Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center at North China University of Technology, said the standards could make certification more credible and professional by addressing differences in the capabilities of testing institutions. Greater confidence in certification results could reduce repeated testing and related costs and shorten the time needed for chips to be adopted in production vehicles.
