Under the dual drivers of domestic substitution and intelligent upgrading, this bidirectional penetration—where MCUs extend into storage and storage expands into control—will become the core force promoting the self-reliance and global competitiveness of China's semiconductor industry chain.

Written at the End

We can see that on one side, strong players with substantial resources are entering the MCU space, while on the other, MCU manufacturers are proactively crossing boundaries to break through. This bidirectional flow reveals a clear trend: the competitive logic in the MCU industry has shifted from single-category cost-performance comparisons to a comprehensive capability race centered on platform-based solutions.

For cross-industry players, MCUs are the key piece to complete their system capabilities; for MCU manufacturers, new tracks represent strategic extensions to amplify their own value. But regardless of direction, those who will ultimately succeed are likely the companies that can break out of single-product thinking and build multi-product collaborative ecosystems.

And this race around boundary reconstruction has just begun.

At that time, OmniVision stated that it would continue to innovate by leveraging its technical foundation in photoelectric conversion, digital, analog, and mixed-signal domains.

After several years of refinement, OmniVision officially launched its new generation of high-performance OMX2xx series MCUs, the OMX2x4B, in June 2025. This series is based on a high-performance Arm Cortex-M7 core, with a main frequency of up to 300MHz, integrates 4MB Flash and 512KB SRAM, provides single-core, dual-core and other configuration options, and supports A/B SWAP OTA upgrades and HSM security modules, making it suitable for automotive applications such as smart cockpits, body domain controllers, thermal management, and battery management.

In November of the same year, OmniVision announced that its OMX14x series of automotive-grade MCU chips had passed the ISO 26262 ASIL-B functional safety product certification, marking its achievement of internationally recognized automotive safety standards in addressing systematic failures and random failures.

By this point, OmniVision had initially established a complete capability from product to certification in the automotive MCU field.

If self-developed MCUs were OmniVision's starting point, then the acquisition of Chengdu Yichuang Microelectronics was its key move in the MCU strategy.

In March 2026, changes in business information showed that OmniVision Group completed the equity acquisition of Chengdu Yichuang Microelectronics Co., Ltd. through its affiliated entity, holding a 71.76% stake and achieving actual control of the company. The management team was also updated, with former Chairman Luo Xiangkun stepping down and Gao Wenbao, the legal representative of OmniVision Group, taking over.

It is reported that Yichuang Microelectronics was established in September 2021, focusing on the "source, network, load, and storage" in the new energy sector, covering core scenarios such as photovoltaic energy storage, charging piles, and new energy vehicle power electronics and control. Its core product ET6000 series MCU/DSP is equipped with an Arm Cortex-M7 core, with a maximum main frequency of 300MHz, making it the first dual-core energy master control chip in China. Among them, the ET6002 product family achieves Pin2Pin compatibility with TI C2000, facilitating the domestic substitution and iterative upgrading of existing solutions.

Nexchip, as an analog and embedded chip design enterprise, mainly operates in charging management, DC-DC, lithium battery management chips, and is expanding into automotive electronics and industrial applications. This acquisition is its core action in MCU layout, with four main purposes: first, to integrate both parties' products, technologies, and R&D teams, complement its capabilities in embedded chip hardware, IP, algorithms, etc., forming technical complementarity; second, to expand product categories in the endpoint processor field, improve the product matrix, and broaden its layout in mobile communications, automotive electronics, and general consumer fields; third, to reuse Yisheng Micro's customer resources, expand cooperation scope, and enhance brand effects in细分 application fields; fourth, to integrate supply chain resources to achieve scale effects, reduce raw material procurement costs, and form synergies in the embedded field, helping the company move toward a global leading analog and embedded chip enterprise.

Silergy's layout in automotive-grade MCUs is more aggressive, launching automotive-grade 32-bit MCUs specifically created for key automotive applications such as "big three electronics" (motor, battery, controller), chassis, and body domain controllers. Based on high-performance RISC-V cores, with main frequencies up to 300MHz, it covers dual-core to six-core solutions, strictly following automotive certification standards. It has also launched MCUs for body ECU applications, all supporting ASIL-B functional safety levels, widely used in scenarios such as vehicle lights, combination instruments, shifters, and door controllers. Silergy has also partnered with Sophgo, Vector and others to create a high-performance RISC-V MCU basic software platform for automobiles, forming a complete closed loop from chip to software ecosystem.

From the above cases, it is not difficult to see that the logic of domestic analog chip manufacturers entering the MCU field is relatively consistent: relying on their technical accumulation and customer base in surrounding fields such as power management, signal chain, and drivers to extend to the core control link. Although their entry points vary, the strategic intent behind them is a "simulation + control" platform capability race around high-value tracks such as automotive electronics and industrial control, under the surface of MCU "involution" (intense internal competition).

MCU Manufacturers: Reverse Breakthrough

While analog and embedded manufacturers are flocking to the MCU track, veteran MCU players like Zhongwei Semiconductor are taking the opposite path—that is, while deeply cultivating the main business of MCUs, they are extending in reverse to surrounding fields such as storage, analog, and power, exploring a "MCU+" platform-based transformation.