This article is from the WeChat public account: Smart thing (ID: zhidxcom) , author: Yunpeng, from FIG title: IC photo
Tomorrow is April 1, the first quarter of 2020 is about to pass. Within a month and a half after the Spring Festival, Qualcomm ’s flagship 5G chip Snapdragon 865 has landed more than 14 flagship phones, Huawei Kirin 990 5G continues to be used in P40 series flagship phones. Just yesterday, the Kirin 820 5G chip has landed on the glory 30S, and Huawei’s 5G chip has completed coverage from the flagship to the mid-range.
The cake of SoCs and baseband chips belonging to 5G smartphones is not much left.
The MediaTek 1000 series is still silent.
In November 2019, MediaTek, which had been silent for two years, made a high-profile sound and directly broke the Teana 1000, hoping to integrate with Qualcomm in the 5G high-end mobile phone chip market for another round.
At the launch conference of the new Teana 1000 series, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Huawei and several domestic mainstream manufacturers all have executives to appear as MediaTek platforms, but at present, except for an OPPO Reno 3 at the end of 2019 equipped with Teana 1000L, 2020 Since the beginning of the year, none of the 5G mobile phones use MediaTek chips.
The fiery heat of the conference is in sharp contrast to the desertedness of the actual landing. Is the product not ready or is the market not buying it? The truth behind it is worth exploring.
5G market Qualcomm opens a big meal every year
Since mid-February 2020, in just one and a half months, Samsung, Xiaomi, OV and other manufacturers have successively released their latest 5G flagship mobile phones. These products are no exception.Both are equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865, and Huawei’s opening year flagship P40 series also uses its own Kirin 990 5G SoC.
We must know that Samsung, Xiaomi, and OV together account for nearly half of the global smartphone market, and the other 30% of the market occupied by Apple and Huawei do not need open market SoCs.
At the Qualcomm X60 5G baseband conference in February this year, Qualcomm said that more than 70 5G smartphones will use Snapdragon 865. The 5G smartphones based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 series and 7 series chips are being designed 275 units.
At this time, doubts can’t help but come to mind: Why has MediaTek’s 5G chips been delayed for landing?
Is the Teana 1000L tested by the market?
Although the big brother Teana 1000 has not yet appeared in terminal products, the Teana 1000L has already appeared on the mobile phone circle on OPPO Reno 3 in December last year.
The standard version of OPPO Reno 3 uses Teana 1000L with a starting price of 3399 yuan, while the Pro version uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G with a starting price of 3999 yuan. This is also the first duel between Qualcomm and MediaTek 5G chips.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G has eight cores. One large core and one medium core use Arm’s A76 architecture. The maximum core frequency is 2.4Ghz.The 865 uses the A77 architecture, with a maximum core frequency of 2.8Ghz.
In addition, the X52 baseband used by the Snapdragon 765G is also different from the X55 baseband of the Snapdragon 865, so the gap between them is relatively obvious and positioning is easier to distinguish.
The Teana 1000L actually uses the same A77 architecture as the Teana 1000, with the main frequency reduced from 2.6Ghz to 2.2Ghz, and the built-in 5G baseband is the same as the Helio M70.
So although Teana 1000L is also a younger brother, its position in its own system is obviously higher than that of Snapdragon 765G.
For visual comparison, in the following test data comparison section, I will use OPPO Reno 3 for Teana 1000L, and OPPO Reno 3 Pro for Snapdragon 765G.
According to mainstream technology media evaluation data, in the AnTuTu test software, the Teana 1000L has a running score of about 380,000, and the Snapdragon 765G is about 320,000. In the Geekbench benchmark test, the Teana 1000L led the Snapdragon 765G with 9% single-core and 48% multi-core advantages.
In the “Light Mountain” mobile game test with unlocked frame rate, the Teana 1000L frame number is about 77% higher than that of the Snapdragon 765G. In the AI performance test, with the support of an independent NPU, the Teana 1000L scored 34,000 points, and the Snapdragon 765G scored around 5,500 points.
In the 5G network transmission rate test, the download speed of Teana 1000L is similar to that of Snapdragon 765G and Kirin 990 5G, both of which are about 500Mbps. In terms of upload rate, Teana 1000L and Kirin 990 5G are both about 100Mbps. Snapdragon 765G is about 60Mbps.
In terms of power consumption, measured data from media shows that after the same stress test, the power consumption of the Teana 1000L is 9%, and the power consumption of the Snapdragon 765G is 7%.
From this perspective, the Teana 1000L does have a clear performance advantage over the Snapdragon 765G.
What about the cost? According to the supply chain information, the Snapdragon 765G currently costs about $ 40 and the Teana 1000 is about $ 70. Although there is no cost information related to the Teana 1000L, the Teana 1000L and Teana 1000 are slightly different except for the GPU model, the main frequency is reduced, and other specifications are basically the same.
Almost four months have passed since the release of OPPO Reno 3, and its performance is also remarkable. The Teana 1000L can be said to be the first “smooth landing” of MediaTek in the 5G era.
But it is interesting that OPPO launched the OPPO Reno 3 vitality version in February this year, which is based on the Reno 3 standard version, replacing the Teana 1000L with the Snapdragon 765, with a starting price of 2999 yuan.
Oppo’s one-handed operation really makes the positioning of Teana 1000L a bit awkward.
Seeing this, maybe you and I have the same doubts- Since there is no problem with the product itself, why is the 5G mobile phone equipped with the flagship Teana 1000 still unwilling to show up?
Is it too late or is production capacity tight?
1. Product cycle
If you look at the product cycle, the first announcement of Qualcomm Snapdragon 865-related news was at the MWC conference in February 2019. Qualcomm said that the next generation of 5G mobile chips will be taped out that month, and in the first half of 2020 Achieve commercial use.
MediaTek ’s 5G mobile chip announcement is slightly slower. At the Taipei Computer Show in May 2019, MediaTek first announced its 5G flagship chipThe relevant information indicates that it will adopt an integrated design with a built-in Helio M70 5G modem.
It took a year from the first announcement of chip information to the landing of a terminal product. If MediaTek’s product rhythm is similar to that of Qualcomm, there may be more than a month before the launch of the Teana 1000 terminal product.
It is worth noting that Ziguang Zhanrui also launched its own 5G solution at the MWC conference in February 2019. At present, there are no end products. The second-tier 5G SoC and baseband chip players may generally have slower progress .
2. Productivity
If MediaTek is not in a hurry, it must be false. But making a chip is not wishful thinking. Although you have designed a chip, after all, you have to “make it for you.”
MediaTek’s Teana 1000 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 have both adopted TSMC’s more mature and relatively advanced 7nm process.
As we all know, TSMC is currently the world’s largest chip foundry, and his customers are also heavyweight. Apple, Huawei, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, AMD and MediaTek are all sharing TSMC’s production capacity.
According to the supply chain, according to the 7nm order ratio, the top five TSMC customers are Apple, Huawei, Qualcomm, AMD and MediaTek.
Apple is still TSMC ’s largest 7nm customer. Its current shipments are the A12 chip used in the iPhone X series and the A13 chip used in the iPhone 11 series.
Although Apple’s A14 chip will use TSMC’s 5nm process, which will reduce Apple’s demand for 7nm production capacity to a certain extent, Apple’s next-generation iPhone will implement 5G functions by plugging in Qualcomm’s X55 baseband, so the demand for X55 baseband will follow Increase.
Huawei has already ranked second in the world in terms of annual shipments in the smartphone market. Kirin 980, Kirin 990, and Kirin 990 5G are SoCs powered by 4G and 5G models in China. It goes without saying.
According to supply chain news, after Apple shifts to 5nm in the second half of 2020, AMD will become TSMC’s largest customer of 7nm, accounting for about one fifth of the total 7nm wafer production capacity. Huawei and Qualcomm will occupy about one-fifth of production capacity, while MediaTek will share approximately 14% of production capacity.
The rising demand of the giants has really made TSMC a little bit overwhelmed. From January this year, there have been news that TSMC’s 7nm production capacity is insufficient.
From this point of view, MediaTek’s Teana 1000 product landing is slowed down by the insufficient capacity of TSMC.
The sale price may not have reached MediaTek’s entry point
From the information displayed on a mainstream e-commerce platform, MediaTek ’s main position in the 4G mobile phone market is in the price range of 1,000 to 2,000 yuan.
Although the price of 5G flagship mobile phones is currently lower, mainstream products are still concentrated in the price segment of 3500 yuan and above.
▲ Deadline for Form Statistics: March 15
However, unlike the 4G era, MediaTek has the ambition to turn around in the 5G battle. From the paper parameters, the Teana 1000 chip directly targets Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865, so MediaTek 5G mobile phones The main concentrated price range will naturally rise.
Conclusion: Do n’t be afraid of having a good meal, it ’s the key to really produce a good product.
At present, in addition to Apple, five of the top six manufacturers in the global mobile phone shipments have already released their latest 5G flagship phones, completing their first show in 2020.
It’s important to start in the lead, but if there is a significant effort in the rear, there is also a chance to win a 5G long run. Qualcomm used the Snapdragon 855Plus + external baseband to achieve the first 5G mobile phone landing, but the launch of the Huawei Kirin 990 5G also really ate a large piece of 5G cake, and the launch of the Kirin 820 further enhanced Huawei’s in the mid-range mobile phone market Competitiveness.
The current tight production capacity of TSMC is certainly one of the objective resistances for MediaTek’s large-scale landing of 1000. It is also important for mobile phone manufacturers to recognize and adopt MediaTek. MediaTek needs to use a reasonable pricing strategy to obtain cost-effective advantages.
In addition, although the performance of Teana 1000L is remarkable, the establishment of user reputation and market confidence is not a day’s work, but also requires a long flow of water. MediaTek needs a proven product that uses hard power to prove its determination to work in the 5G era.
At present, the cost of 5G mobile phone chips is soaring. Under the situation that Samsung and Huawei chips are mostly used by themselves, Qualcomm has almost become the best choice for other mobile phone manufacturers. At present, Xiaomi, OPPO and other manufacturers have begun to explore on the road of self-developed chips. 5G chipsThe market still has variables.
However, there is not much time left for MediaTek.
This article comes from WeChat public account: 智 物 (ID: zhidxcom) author: Yunpeng