Since the Huawei incident, major manufacturers have realized the importance of mastering core technologies, and as a result, independent research and development of chips has gradually become a new track.
Of course, highly integrated SOC chips still need a long period of investment and accumulation, fortunately, at present, these manufacturers have taken a key step in some segments. Shooting, fast charging, gaming... The breakthrough direction chosen by manufacturers' self-developed chips has its own focus, and the purpose is to focus on practical problems and provide a differentiated experience for mobile phones.
For example, the OPPO Find X5 series, which will be released tomorrow, will be equipped with OPPO's first self-developed chip, MariSilicon X. According to the information currently published, it can be determined that this chip specializes in image computing and is also the world's first 6nm imaging dedicated NPU chip.
Before OPPO, a number of mobile phone manufacturers have launched self-developed ISP image chips, but ISPs often can only solve part of the computing problems, which is also an important reason why OPPO defines MariSilicon X as NPU, rather than ISP chips. The entire image unit of the MariSilicon X has more functions, and it is difficult to improve the performance through the algorithm after the ISP is packaged, and the NPU does not have this concern.
With the support of MariSilicon X computing power, the Find X5 series has a new high specification that supports 4K+20bit RAW computing + AI+Ultra HDR at the same time, which can improve the video quality of mobile phones, which is also the focus of our evaluation of this mobile phone tomorrow, and if you are interested, you can pay attention to it.
In addition to OPPO, Xiaomi, vivo, etc. have already entered the game to create dedicated self-developed chip products, so far, mobile phone products equipped with related chips have basically been unveiled, and we have also done evaluation.
What's the difference between these phones that use self-developed chips? In view of this problem, the following is based on the actual experience to talk to you in depth.
Surging P1
Powered by a mobile phone: Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro
The surging P1 is the third self-developed chip released by Xiaomi, the first two are the surging S1 and the surging C1. The former is a processor chip, which is older. Surging C1 is a mobile phone image chip, self-developed ISP + algorithm, released by the Xiaomi MIX FOLD released in March last year, because this phone has entered the end of the life cycle, we still mainly look at the xiaomi 12 Pro on this charging chip - surging P1.
In terms of charging specifications, the Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro supports wired 120W fast charging, 50W wireless charging and 10W wireless reverse charging, and builds a more space-saving 4600mAh single-cell battery. From the actual charging speed, there is no difference between the Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro and other 120W mobile phones, but this does not mean that Xiaomi has spent so much effort to develop its own P1 chip without meaning.
So far, in addition to the Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro, smartphones with wired charging speeds of 120W have all adopted dual-cell systems without exception. Double-string battery discharge requires pressure reduction, and the conversion efficiency leads to a waste of 3 to 4% of the electricity and higher heat generation, which also causes waste to the internal space of the mobile phone.
By redesigning the entire charging architecture, the two surging P1 chips inside the Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro take over the traditional 5-charge pump complex structure, achieving a single-cell 120W fast charge with a capacity of 4600mAh, and also making more space for the inside of the phone.
A direct embodiment is that the space saved helps the Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro use a four-unit speaker, and we feel that its sound field is much wider than that of the general mobile phone after the experience. At the same time, the thickness of the fuselage can be controlled at 8.16mm, which is also a good result. In addition, with the smaller Xiaomi Mi 120W GaN adapter, the whole set is relatively light in the 100-watt mobile phone.
The landing of this technology also means that in the future, 100-watt fast-charging mobile phones with larger capacity single cells will become a reality. After the gradual popularization of ultra-high power fast charging, the user's charging habits have changed, and the next step is the competition between manufacturers to improve the fast charging experience, and the surging P1 obviously helps Xiaomi take a step ahead.
vivo V1
Equipped with mobile phones: vivo X70 Pro, vivo X70 Pro+
The vivo X70 series was released in September last year, and its first self-developed V1 image processing chip was also unveiled. After an in-depth experience of the image function of vivo X70 Pro+, we gave it the evaluation of "complete image experience", and to this day, its image performance is still among the best in the industry.
How much of a role does the V1 chip play in this? In the process of experiencing this phone, we also tried to find out. Compared with the ISP integrated with the SoC chip, the self-developed ISP chip not only has more advantages in performance and power consumption, but most importantly, it provides greater flexibility and autonomy in image function and tuning, and achieves the effect of "superposition" with the main chip ISP.
In addition to the tuning of the external ISP itself, it also needs to achieve mutual synergy with the main chip ISP, and if this work is done well, it can also reduce the difference in the performance level of the ISP of different SoC platforms. Even if the SoC is replaced, the image performance is guaranteed to be consistent.
From the vivo V1 to the simultaneous adaptation of Qualcomm Snapdragon, Samsung Exynos, and mediatek Tianji 9000 platforms that have been officially announced to be carried, in fact, the strength of the vivo chip and imaging team has been demonstrated.
Falling on the product, the V1 chip is most obvious in the vivo X70 Pro+ is the extreme low light scene, which can achieve a higher brightness real-time picture preview. The difference is also obvious compared to models that use the same level of specifications, but do not have a dedicated image processing chip.
In terms of picture quality performance, X70 Pro+ adopts a Samsung GN1 main camera of the previous year, through comparison, the naked eye can see that its picture purity in the low-light scene is improved, and the intervention of the night scene algorithm is also more active and accurate, even in some complex light environments, it can also present a natural and transparent low-light picture quality.
It can be said that in the era of mobile imaging where computational photography is king, the V1 image chip gives vivo more room to play, and its future also has greater explosive potential.
Red Core No. 1
Powered by phone: Red Devil 7 Pro
The newly released Red Devil 7 Pro also brings a domestic "game chip" - Red Core No. 1. Developed by Red Devils and Ai Wei Electronics, plus Red Devils' self-developed algorithms. The reason for the quotation marks is that this chip does not enhance the performance of the game, but mainly deals with the computational tasks related to game control.
As a gaming phone, the Red Devil 7 Pro has built-in dual IC touch shoulder keys, dual X-axis linear motors, dual speakers and dazzling RGB lights and many other components, which involve many algorithms, such as 4D vibration, game sound, shoulder key mapping scheme, to achieve a good collaboration and control experience, it does require an additional computing power to share the processing.
When we experienced the Red Devil 7 Pro, we also found that thanks to the installation of the Red Core 1, it has several built-in shoulder key mapping schemes for some games, such as "Peace Elite", which does not need to be manually adjusted every time as before, and it is more convenient to shoot, cut the mirror, and steer. Even games such as "Original God", which require character combos, have mapping scheme suggestions, which reduce the threshold for the use of shoulder keys.
In addition, because the Red Devil 7 series uses a touch-type shoulder key scheme, there is still an innate gap between the sense of impact and vibration feedback compared to the pop-up shoulder key, but in contrast, the vibration feedback of the red devil 7 Pro with one more red core No. 1 chip is indeed stronger than that of the Red Devil 7 without this chip.
In fact, a self-developed chip with optimized subdivision functions like Red Core No. 1 may be more suitable for mobile phones that focus on the game experience. Previously, some products of iQOO were equipped with an independent display chip, and this year this chip was upgraded to a unique chip Pro, although this chip is not self-developed, but we pointed out in the previous iQOO Neo5S evaluation that the unique chip Pro not only improves the game frame rate, but also reduces the power consumption level.
Therefore, chips such as Red Core No. 1 and Monodiskritive Chip Pro are more likely to bring further differentiated experiences to game phones when used well.
In fact, the reason why it is necessary to explore whether the manufacturer's self-developed chip is useful or because the chip industry has a very mature solution, and the self-developed model has a long investment cycle and high risk.
The data shows that the chip development cost of 16nm nodes is about $100 million; the cost of 7nm nodes is about $297 million; and the development cost of 3nm is likely to exceed $1 billion.
Although the above chips are not SoCs, the development costs are definitely not low, and the industry estimates that MariSilicon X will reach at least $100 million or more. The more advanced the process, the higher the risk. Once Xiaomi rumored that in the second generation of chip creation in 2019, "the tape-out failed five times, and the funds burned billions".
But from another point of view, the world's high-end mobile phone manufacturers, Apple, Huawei, Samsung all have the strength of independently developed chips. The A-series chips are also considered to be the key to Apple's strong competitive advantage. Huawei's latecomers also rely on long-term investment in Kirin chips to create a differentiated ability that is different from other brands.
At present, it is difficult for mobile phone manufacturers to create differentiated products, and the result is the continuous "inner volume" under the high homogenization of products. From the self-developed chip, although it has only started, it can also be regarded as a new round of competition in the mobile phone industry has begun, and it is committed to the underlying technological innovation.
In the future, no matter who can go further and better on the road of self-developed chips, we are happy to see the benign development of the product itself and the industry.