MStar made hardware for multimedia and wireless communications, in the form of display ICs and mixed-mode (i.e. combining analog and digital functions) ASIC/IPs, in addition to chip sets for GSM mobile handsets.

[5] MStar was often referred as "Little-M" or "Morning Star" in Chinese community, as a contrary part of the bigger semiconductor company "Big-M", a.k.a.

Chairman and CEO of MStar was Wayne Liang (梁公偉), while Dr. Steve Yang (楊偉毅) was the executive vice president and co-founder.

In 2004, after being involved in a court case where in a ruling by the International Trade Commission (ITC), MStar Semiconductor were found guilty over infringing on a patent held by Genesis Microchip for a method to improve images on liquid-crystal-display (LCD) monitors and flat screen TVs.

[6] On October 14, 2020, MStar came under investigation by the US International Trade Commission for allegedly infringing patents held by DIVX LLC of San Diego, California, USA.