Vivo & MediaTek Joint Interview: Demystifying the story behind vivo's twin-core flagship X80 series

Abstract: On the afternoon of April 25, 2022, vivo held a new product launch conference in Shenzhen and officially released a new generation of flagship models X80 series, including X80, X80 Pro, X80 Pro Tianji 9000 edition of three models. Among them, vivo X80 is equipped with MediaTek Tianji 9000 flagship platform, and vivo X80 Pro also provides MediaTek Tianji 9000 flagship platform version. It is worth mentioning that the vivo X80 series is equipped with a self-developed chip V1+ chip as standard, which brings the imaging capabilities of the vivo X80 series to a new level through co-processing with the MediaTek Tianji 9000 flagship platform.

On the afternoon of April 25, 2022, vivo held a new product launch conference in Shenzhen and officially released a new generation of flagship models X80 series, including X80, X80 Pro, X80 Pro Tianji 9000 edition of three models. Among them, vivo X80 is equipped with MediaTek Tianji 9000 flagship platform, and vivo X80 Pro also provides MediaTek Tianji 9000 flagship platform version. It is worth mentioning that the vivo X80 series is equipped with a self-developed chip V1+ chip as standard, which brings the imaging capabilities of the vivo X80 series to a new level through co-processing with the MediaTek Tianji 9000 flagship platform.

Recently, MediaTek and Vivo jointly held an online media conference, Mr. Li Junnan, Technical Planning Director of MediaTek Wireless Communications Division, Mr. Zhang Genghao, Product Planning Director of MediaTek Wireless Communications Division, and Ms. Yang Qing, Product Manager of Vivo X Series, together unveiled the cooperation between MediaTek and Vivo behind vivo's second-generation twin-core flagship X80 series.

The following is a transcript of the interview:

1. Why should the X80 series choose Tianji 9000? What are the main reasons why vivo chose to cooperate with MediaTek? In vivo's view, what is the most impressive change in Tianji 9000?

Yang Qing: First of all, our philosophy is very consistent, whether it is vivo or MediaTek, they are all innovative and practical, that is to say, we are committed to innovation, and we are also very down-to-earth. We all adhere to the user-oriented, user-driven demand to drive, we also see each other's determination and confidence, do our best, work together to create.

In addition, the performance of the Tianji 9000 is very outstanding, it has both excellent performance and excellent energy efficiency ratio. The performance breakthrough of Tianji 9000 and the market, we believe that Tianji 9000 is very suitable for our flagship.

On the other hand, the cooperation between vivo and MediaTek has been for a long time, and we have established a good tacit understanding between both sides, which is the basis for our strong cooperation.

2. Why did vivo X80 fail to catch up with the first or first batch of Tianji 9000, and where was more time spent? Is it image tuning?

Yang Qing: Mainly our refinement of the chip. The first is to make the Tianji 9000 better adapt to our self-developed chip V1+, so that we need to do the best experience. In addition, vivo has its own rhythm, and also hopes to let consumers feel the intentions of both us and MediaTek.

In terms of the depth of cooperation, the two sides have achieved multi-level joint research and development from the underlying hardware to software, such as performance, AI, imaging, games, communications and multimedia, etc., we have upgraded a lot of differentiated experiences, and worked together to become the flagship reshaper of the market and industry.

3. In this double-core cooperation, what optimizations have been mainly carried out by the two sides? What is the biggest differentiating feature achieved? What are the biggest challenges in the process of cooperation? And how to overcome the impact of the epidemic?

Yang Qing: The biggest optimization and challenge is how to make Tianji 9000 and our self-developed chip V1+ achieve 1+1>2 results, which requires us to spend a lot of time, personnel, cost and energy on both sides. Both sides also hope to make this product better and satisfy consumers.

In the current mobile phone ecosystem, the standard for evaluating the strength of manufacturers is no longer a simple configuration and the ability of the supply chain, but more importantly, whether it can be used well and correctly, that is, we say that it is tuned and transparent, and whether it can achieve a perfect balance of performance and power consumption in the actual use scenarios of users, which is the highest goal of vivo and MediaTek cooperation.

Li Junnan: Let me add. In this cooperation, the two sides aimed to release the strongest performance of tianji 9000 from the beginning to create a full-link flagship experience. Including performance, power consumption, gaming, taking photos, videos, and more, these are all optimizations that we did together.

In addition, in the challenge part, the epidemic has brought a certain impact on everyone's work, which is a new work model. In recent years, remote work and video conferencing have become more and more complete, and online forms such as today's ones have also been affected by the epidemic. Of course, we want to communicate face-to-face with media teachers, but we still have to overcome the difficulties and keep moving forward.

4. Does MediaTek and vivo have special optimizations for the vivo V1+ chip? How difficult is it to polish the image part? What hardware-level algorithm support does MediaTek provide?

Yang Qing: There are many special optimizations. For example, through the AI computing power of mediaTek APU, we work together with multiple internal and external processors to complete the screen rendering of the game with the GPU, thereby releasing a part of the GPU load. At the same time, by calling the hardware and interpolation algorithm of the self-developed chip V1+, the stability of the frame rate is optimized, and the two swords are combined, and finally the effect of our performance and power balance is achieved.

In the image part, because we have the blessing of V1+, we can well realize the function of real-time black light night vision.

Li Junnan: For the cooperation of vivo V1+, Tianji 9000 provides Tianji open architecture and deep integration with vivo V1+. At the beginning, the two sides set goals, so they invested a lot of R & D manpower, combined with the advantages of the two chips, perfectly combined with the high-efficiency APU of Tianji 9000, the excellent processing power of HDR and V1 of the hardware, so that all the shooting scenes, like black light night vision, reached a better level.

5, the current flagship machine is focused on differentiation, in terms of chips, MediaTek has a special Tianji open architecture, will it be specifically for vivo to launch chips such as Tianji 9000-vivo?

Zhang Genghao: Last year, MediaTek and vivo had some cooperation on the open architecture of the Tianji series, which is also applied to X70 products. This Open Architecture allows terminals or third parties to fully explore the potential of Tianji's flagship platform, including ai photography and games just mentioned. In the future, we will also collaborate and deeply cooperate with customers to explore how to create an innovative, differentiated, personalized experience.

6. In this cooperation, what new progress and breakthroughs have been made in the cooperation between the two sides on the open architecture of Tianji?

Li Junnan: Tianji open architecture since our first generation of flagship Tianji 1000, we have been working hard. Tianji open architecture has a feature, that is, it will be forward compatible, so vivo can continue to optimize on the open architecture and strengthen the functions of the previous generation. This time in the flagship display technology, Tianji 9000 open architecture we added the display link screen high-precision calibration hardware, combined with vivo's newly developed calibration algorithm, in the display link to achieve low power consumption, super flagship level of thousand screen one color performance.

And we are leading the industry to maintain a consistent color standard at different brightnesses, which is a relatively big breakthrough.

In terms of cameras, we have added an AI-ISP open architecture interface to the recording link, so that vivo's AI algorithm can achieve some AI functions with lower power consumption and better results, which can be used in functions such as AI-3A/AI-AWB mentioned at the technical communication meeting, which can make the effect better. The close cooperation between vivo and MediaTek can achieve a better video experience such as extremely dark night recording.

MediaTek will continue to define this open architecture in all areas of mobile phones, allowing customers to differentiate and fully unleash the capabilities of the platform's hardware.

7. Now that there are successive image flagship mobile phones equipped with Tianji chips, how does MediaTek view the strategy of self-developed chips of mobile phone companies and this dual-core cooperation model? For the next flagship machine market, what is MediaTek's judgment?

Zhang Genghao: The model of dual-core cooperation means that the synergy between chip manufacturers, mediatek, and terminal manufacturers, vivo, has entered a deeper level, and the most important purpose is to release the potential of the entire chip, as well as to create a scenario that meets customer needs according to the differentiated needs of terminals, and can have an excellent experience.

In terms of the development of the entire industry, this is quite positive, and in the flagship field, we hope to make a performance and experience that is really different and really makes end consumers feel. We have the opportunity to explore more possibilities with terminal manufacturers and make progress together, which has a substantial innovative significance and results for us or for manufacturers and even for the entire industry.

8. What do you think is the reason why customers are willing to choose to cooperate with MediaTek at the chip level? Is this a new trend in the mobile phone industry?

Zhang Genghao: In fact, the Tianji series is not only in the flagship market, but also produces a new trend in the entire mobile phone market. Taking Tianji 9000 as an example, the most important thing is that Tianji 9000 has shown its flagship performance and performance and has been recognized by customers. Tianji 9000 is a very good milestone product in the MediaTek flagship market, especially for performance, power consumption, and can be combined with our partner that is vivo, which can produce a product that meets customer needs.

At the same time, MediaTek and vivo have a long-term in-depth cooperation, in the past we with vivo also launched such as X70, S12 Pro and other excellent products, the two sides through some joint investigation cooperation experience, can give full play to the potential of Tianji 9000, this is also a very critical reason.

In addition, just mentioned that vivo and MediaTek have the same common goal, on the flagship last year the two sides have launched a comprehensive joint investigation, we set a strong goal, that is, to release the strongest performance of the Tianji 9000. Therefore, at the bottom of the chip and through the open architecture to create a full-link flagship experience, in this process, vivo and MediaTek have invested considerable manpower and resources. I believe that after the release of the vivo X80 series, you can have a deeper experience from the product.

The last and most important point is that in product innovation, we also have a very consistent gene of hard work, that is, just mentioned, innovation and hard work make our two companies have a high resonance. We believe that future efforts can also have a reshaping and breakthrough in this flagship market.

9. What is the current production capacity of Tianji 9000? What is the latest shipment of the Tianji 9000 series?

Zhang Genghao: Tianji 9000 is a very important product, for us, our stock is quite sufficient. The pandemic and capacity used to be a big challenge for the industry, but we were basically quite well prepared in this place.

10. What is the biggest motivation for vivo's self-developed chips and cooperation with MediaTek in the chip field? What kind of way do you think is a better way for mobile phone OEMs to develop their own chips?

Yang Qing: First of all, one of the driving forces is to bring users an unprecedented experience and maximize the balance of power consumption and performance. The second motivation is that we hope to achieve breakthroughs with each other, have more innovations, and create greater value for the industry together.

As for the way mobile phone OEMs develop their own chips, in fact, this is strongly related to our demand for consumer insights and the mutual transformation between algorithms. First of all, partners in the industry do not have the resources to do in the short term, vivo to do, such as the lack of differentiation, partners can do, vivo preferentially choose cooperation.

At present, vivo's own resources are mainly laid out in the design of algorithms, IP conversion and chip architecture, such as IC line design, tape-out, production and other processes, we will entrust to partners, and both sides will use their respective professions and advantages to rationally divide labor and collaborate to make our products more outstanding.

11, vivo X80 series will use the latest generation of MediaTek Tianji processor, so I want to know, vivo in the adjustment of Tianji 9000, what kind of performance strategy will be adopted in the general direction? Is it a comprehensive performance release, or a conservative tuning strategy that focuses on daily experience, or a choice that is left to the user through the setting of different performance modes?

Yang Qing: The deep joint tuning of vivo and the platform allows the hardware performance to be fully released, not only covering the daily use of web browsing, sending and receiving messages and music playback, but also including some game scenes such as high-performance requirements, so as to make the screen clearer and the experience smoother, while reducing power consumption and heat, and extending the game's battery life.

For example, relative to some hardcore players, we have opened the GPU Setting Panel, users can define the display effect of the screen, such as anisotropy filtering, texture filtering quality, etc., these professional GPU underlying parameters are open to users, users can operate by themselves, and can also be freely combined, thus bringing personalized, customized game effects.

12, the industry's leading companies are through more customization to achieve product differentiation, this differentiation is likely to eventually become homogeneous?

Yang Qing: Vivo chooses customization and improves the self-research rate in order to comprehensively improve the experience of using the product, and to mine from the perspective of users and meet the needs of more users. We also hope to provide users with more extreme products and achieve a more comprehensive user experience in multiple scenarios.

13. In the previous mediatek publicity, we noticed that the default camera process of Tianji 9000 uses a large number of APU, rather than ISP for computing processing, in order to achieve a higher energy efficiency ratio, after adding V1 + chip, what impact has it on the energy efficiency ratio of the whole machine?

Yang Qing: Through the AI computing power of mediaTek APU, the collaborative work of multiple processors inside and outside the linkage, and the GPU to complete the game's screen rendering, and then further release part of the GPU load, in the call of the self-developed chip hardware and interpolation frame algorithm, the stability of the frame rate is optimized, the two swords are combined, and the excellent effect of performance and power consumption balance can be achieved.

Li Junnan: Tianji 9000 APU has high performance, high energy efficiency performance, the main goal of our design of this APU is that it can be more easily used in a variety of power consumption is already very challenging scenes, like games and video, so this time through the cooperation of Tianji open architecture, we have achieved relatively good results in both games and videos, combined with the best technology of both sides, whether it is the game or camera energy efficiency, performance, effect are reached to the best state.

14. The game interpolation function was mentioned when the V1 chip was promoted before, will this part be reflected in the cooperation between V1+ and Tianji 9000? How does it work with the display processing unit of Tianji SoC? Can MediaTek's MiraVision video processing function coexist with the V1? In addition, for the experience of game interpolation, it seems that there is no better test software to feedback the effect of interpolation, will both sides have a software solution or functional scheme corresponding to this function in the future?

Yang Qing: The function of game interpolation will be reflected in this cooperation, which is based on our self-developed chip V1+ and game interpolation technology. Through the AI computing power of MediaTek APU, we link the collaborative work of multiple internal and external processors, and work together with the GPU to complete the screen rendering of the game, thereby releasing a part of the load of the GPU, calling the hardware-level interpolation algorithm of the self-developed chip, optimizing the stability of the frame rate, and finally achieving the effect of performance and power balance.

Li Junnan: In this question, I would like to add that MiraVision contains two types of important functions, which have display technology and video enhancement functions, which can coexist with the V1+ chip and have a bonus effect. The Tianji 9000 provides full-scene HDR display enhancements, including game PQ (Picture Quality), HDR enhancement effects in game scenes, and AI SDR to HDR display enhancements for videos, which can dynamically adjust color, sharpness and high dynamic range, providing more vivid pictures and immersive viewing and gaming experiences. The interpolation function with V1+ games brings an increase in smoothness and gives consumers a more complete gaming experience.

15. Does Vivo have other Tianji models planned this year? What are the future cooperation plans with MediaTek? How is it different from previous years?

Yang Qing: First of all, in terms of the depth of cooperation, we jointly launched a comprehensive joint commissioning work at the beginning of the definition of Tianji 9000, established the research and development goal of the king of Tianji 9000, and began to create a full-link, benchmark-level hardware experience through the open architecture of Tianji from the bottom of the chip to the terminal application.

In terms of cooperation, we have invested an elite team of more than 300 people, and after more than 350 days of research and development cycle, we have greatly innovated the software channel architecture and turned V1+ and Tianji 9000 through. As for more planning this year, please pay more attention to vivo and MediaTek, and also give you an expectation here.

16. What measures does MediaTek take this year in terms of high-end brand operation?

Zhang Genghao: The high-end brand, we understand that this can not be achieved overnight, this is a lasting challenge. We believe that products are the cornerstone of a brand. Good products can naturally drive brands to gain user recognition. Therefore, MediaTek will continue to focus on technology and product level to innovate steadily. While creating a great product, we will also strengthen the operation of the brand. The wine aroma is also afraid of the deep alley, and good products need to be known to the family, and it takes a little time to brew.

17: The vivo X80 series also has a version of the new Snapdragon 8, compared with the Tianji 9000 version, what are the differences in the configuration of the two versions in addition to the processor? What are vivo's expectations for the market performance of these two products? Do you think it is possible for users to prefer the vivoX80 series equipped with the Tianji 9000 version?

Yang Qing: The X80 Pro's Tianji version and 8Gen1 version are based on the characteristics of different platform chips, and have their own advantages in implementing the experience. Through the comprehensive optimization of vivo, the performance on the Tianji 9000 and Snapdragon's 8Gen1 X80 series has been fully played, and it also represents the performance experience ceiling of the current flagship performance. Vivo also insists on making products to the extreme, giving full play to the full strength of each flagship SoC to provide consumers with more purchase options.

18: Whether it is last year's vivo V1 or this year's V1+, it seems that it will only be mounted on the flagship model, and whether the future vivo self-developed image chip may be downgraded to the mid-range model. Perhaps it can even out a part of the research and development costs, and it can also allow more users to experience the charm of self-developed chips.

Yang Qing: We also hope that more users can truly experience the experience brought by our self-developed chips. When we also invest in R&D, we do not pay attention to whether we can share a part of the cost, but focus more on whether self-developed technology can serve users well. Different models, because their needs will be relatively different, as long as they can bring users a better and more suitable experience, we will try.

19: Want to know, Tianji 9000 has been released for half a year now, terminal products are on the market, for the next generation of Tianji 9000 iteration version, what is the progress now? At what stage are you expected to meet with you? What will the focus improve?

Zhang Genghao: The current planning iteration of our flagship product is basically once a year, and the improvement will basically improve the overall performance and power consumption. As for the Tianji 9000 itself, we will also have some optimizations, and teachers can also look forward to it in the near future.

20: I would like to ask the two mediaTek teachers, how to evaluate the overall market performance of Tianji 9000 since its release, including sales data, market feedback, etc., is the feedback good?

Zhang Genghao: At present, with the overall market feedback, including industry feedback or user feedback, basically Tianji 9000 is currently considered to have initially achieved internal expectations from our point of view. The main thing is to let the market know the technical strength of MediaTek. We believe that with the upcoming release of the vivo X80 series, we are bound to let the market see the excellent performance of the Tianji 9000 again.

21: The problem on my side is related to intellectual property rights, and I understand that there is a key issue in the joint research and development of chips, that is, the ownership of intellectual property rights. MediaTek and different mobile phone OEMs to cooperate, how to solve the intellectual property problems in the joint research and development process?

Li Junnan: This is a rather critical question. When we launched the Tianji open architecture, we did a more in-depth discussion. The protection of intellectual property is one of the most important tasks for both chip companies and our customers, so we have developed a clear open architecture level, including the protection of different layers, coupled with the design of the internal cooperation with customers confidentiality process, the protection of mediaTek and the customer's intellectual property rights is very clear.

The differentiated performance or application developed by the customer based on the open architecture of Tianji is the intellectual property of the customer. As mentioned above at the two-core technical communication meeting this time, the cooperation between the two sides has produced quite a lot of new patents, so this is within the scope of protection.

22: This year, everyone knows that under the influence of factors such as lack of core and epidemic, the performance of the domestic mobile phone market in the past few months is not satisfactory. Do you think there will be a significant rebound in the domestic smartphone market in the second half of the year? Another question is, in this case, will the company have some adjustments in its product strategy?

Zhang Genghao: It is true that in recent months, there have been some external factors, including the impact of the epidemic, which are relatively big challenges for our entire industrial chain, customers and market. MediaTek will try its best to meet the needs of customers in terms of supply and support customers. Like this vivo X80, we will ensure that we can meet the needs of customers and the needs of consumers.