The smooth operation of the central control screen, the voice assistant with the flow of answers, and the seamless linkage of multiple large screens in the car...
Driving all this is a tiny chip. Its computing power determines the number of screens in the cockpit, the smoothness of operation and the richness of the picture.
When it comes to smart cockpit chips, the first one that can't be bypassed is Qualcomm.
From the second generation of smart cockpit chips 820A to the third generation of SA8155P. Qualcomm's smart cockpit chips account for almost 90% of the smart car market.
Let's turn the clock back to 2014.
In January 2014, Qualcomm ventured into the automotive chip market and launched its first-generation automotive digital cockpit platform Snapdragon 620A.
It was based on the Snapdragon 600 platform, which was well received on mobile phones at the time, and from the outset took into account the needs of a range of applications such as 4G car networking, in-vehicle WiFi, and cockpit gesture recognition.
Although the Snapdragon 620A does not have too high popularity, it is not difficult to find from it that Qualcomm has long seen the trend of future car cockpits, multimedia and intelligence.
After that, it is the road to becoming king.
In January 2016, the Snapdragon 820A was released, and For the first time, Qualcomm completely surpassed almost all competitors at that time in terms of performance level of automotive system chips.
Even today, the Snapdragon 820A is still one of the most mainstream, high-end car cockpit solutions on the market, and it is still far superior to most competitors in performance.
The 820A is Qualcomm Snapdragon's second-generation automotive digital cockpit chip, derived from the mobile "820" chip.
"A" is an abbreviation for "Automotive", which is Qualcomm's automotive chip that has modified chips in the consumer electronics field.
Although the Xiaomi Mi 5 and Samsung S7 equipped with the "820" are mobile phones launched in 2016, the "820A" with the same performance can still be played in the current car. (Models equipped with the "820A" chip: Ideal ONE, Krypton 001, Lynk & Co 05, Audi A4L, Xiaopeng P7, etc.) ）
In 2019, Qualcomm ended up with a "big move" - the third generation of Snapdragon auto digital cockpit platform SA8155P series.
SA is an acronym for Qualcomm Mobile Chip Platform, Snapdragon and Automotive.
Once launched, it can be said that it swept the entire smart cockpit market. It has won almost all high-end smart cars in China.
For example, ideal L9, NIO ET7/ET5, Xiaopeng P5, Zhiji L7, WM W6, Geely Xingyue L, GAC Aion LX and Great Wall Weipai Mocha.
Qualcomm has gradually established itself as a leading position in the field of in-vehicle high-performance computing.
Compared with the Snapdragon 820A three years ago, the SA8155P basic solution is derived from the Snapdragon 855, which also means that their process technology (7nm) and processor architecture (Cortex A76+A55) have achieved cross-generational progress compared to the Snapdragon 820A. The performance of a single CPU part, the SA8155P has reached about three times the Snapdragon 820A.
Not only that, because the basic design is derived from the Snapdragon 855 and Snapdragon 8CX, the two flagship mobile computing solutions of 2019, the third-generation Snapdragon automotive digital cockpit platform also has support for WiFi6, Bluetooth 5.2, AI accelerated computing, and 5G networks.
However, Qualcomm has not stopped moving forward.
On November 15, 2021, Qualcomm announced that its fourth-generation Snapdragon automotive intelligent cockpit platform has been sampled, this generation of intelligent cockpit platform named SA8295, using a 5nm process process, AI computing power to reach 30Tops.
Compared with the SA8155P commonly used by car companies, the PIXEL support capacity of the SA8295P is three times that of it, the 3D rendering ability is three times that of it, and the AI learning ability (AI computing power) is nearly eight times that of it.
It can be said that the computing power of the SA8295P chip is close to the SoC capability of mobile phones, tablets and other terminals, and users will get a experience comparable to or even surpassing the use of mobile phones and tablets on the car machine.
So why is Qualcomm so strong?
(1) The process technology is leading the peers
There is a saying in the automotive industry that smart cockpit chips, if the process is lower than 7nm, will lose the ticket to continue to compete in the cockpit field.
Each generation of semiconductor processes has a power consumption advantage of more than 10% compared to the previous generation, under similar workloads and performance conditions, the new process can significantly reduce chip energy consumption on the basis of existing mature processes, thereby reducing the difficulty of system heat dissipation, prolonging the service life of the chip and helping to improve the stability of the system.
The improvement of the process process has laid the foundation for reducing the power consumption of the chip and improving the performance of the chip.
Qualcomm can be described as unparalleled in this regard, and the 8295 directly brings the chip's process process from 7nm to the 5nm era.
This means that the pace of development of smart cars is finally catching up with mobile devices, and the 8295 chip of the 4th generation will be in the same generation as the top chip on mobile phones.
(2) Qualcomm chip adapts to Android system
Most of the car system is a derivative version of the Android system, Qualcomm chips on the mobile phone has fully adapted to the rich application ecology of the Android system, and there is no technical obstacle to transplanting and adapting.
(3) Responsive
Qualcomm has a great advantage before entering the car chip market, that is, Qualcomm has been immersed in the mobile phone market with high-speed technology for many years, and has long been accustomed to the rapid upgrading of processes and architectures.
Qualcomm has left room for redundancy through advanced processes to ensure that vehicles have enough computing space for OTA upgrades throughout their full lifecycle, and car companies are more willing to pay for it.
(4) There are local car company service providers
Zhongke Chuangda, Nanjing ArcherMind and other local car company service providers, they make up for the communication barrier between Qualcomm and car companies. There is enough attraction for traditional car manufacturers and new car manufacturers who have transformed into electric vehicles.
(5) The opponent is not powerful
In the cockpit field, Qualcomm is not the only option, but the opponent is not strong.
In addition to traditional automotive SoC manufacturers such as NXP, Renesas, and Texas Instruments, there are also chip manufacturers in the consumer electronics field, such as Intel, Nvidia, Huawei, AMD, and MediaTek.
Judging from the product lines of all other competitors at present, there is no second company that can catch up with Qualcomm's pace. Basically, there is no way to return the phone to the competitors.
Intelligent cockpit is a new generation of interaction mode of the car, the car's central control large screen, multi-screen linkage, touch operation, voice interaction, AR HUD and other functions, are part of the intelligent cockpit interaction experience.
It can be said that the current intelligent cockpit system is no different from the mobile phones, computers and other digital devices we buy, and the performance of the chip will directly affect the user's experience.