Chip, this is how the Chinese Oppo frees itself from Qualcomm and MediaTek
Chinese manufacturer Oppo is also working on developing proprietary smartphone chips. The company thus follows the same path taken by Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and Google
Oppo, one of China's largest smartphone manufacturers, has embarked on proprietary chip development for its premium models. A report from Nikkei reports it .
In this way, the Chinese company tries to reduce its dependence on foreign suppliers such as the American Qualcomm and the Taiwanese MediaTek.
The Chinese smartphone maker, which is currently the fourth largest worldwide by volume of sales, intends to commercialize models with proprietary integrated circuit systems (Soc) no later than 2024.
The company thus follows the same path taken by Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and Google, which yesterday unveiled its Pixel6, the first smartphone to make use of its Tenor mobile processor.
Additionally, just yesterday, Chinese tech giant Alibaba also said it has developed a chip that will be used to power servers in its data centers.
THE OPPO CHIP
Specifically, Oppo intends to rely on the 3-nanometer technology made available by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (Tsmc).
THE LAST INCURSION OF A SMARTPHONE MANUFACTURER INTO SEMICONDUCTORS
If the plans come true, Oppo would be the last major smartphone maker to take control of their SoC design. Yesterday, Google launched the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, its first phones with a custom SoC called the Tensor. Apple and Samsung also designed their own smartphone chips, as did Huawei before US sanctions decimated its mobile business.
WHAT THE CHINESE XIAOMI HAS DONE
Xiaomi designed and released a low-end SoC called the Surge S1 for its budget phone Mi 5C in 2017, but its chip design efforts have since been limited to secondary components such as image signal processors.
FREE FROM THE SUPPLY OF QUALCOMM AND MEDIATEK
Oppo currently uses chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek, like all other Chinese smartphone vendors after Huawei's crackdown.
But as Nikkei recalls, the company has increased its investment in chips since the US crackdown hit Huawei. He has hired top chip developers and AI experts from MediaTek, Qualcomm, and Huawei, and is continuing his recruiting efforts in the US, Taiwan and Japan, according to industry executives and job postings.
Since it shares a supply chain and ownership with Vivo, Realme and OnePlus, the chips developed by Oppo could quickly find their way into phones from multiple brands, The Verge points out.
THE COMMENT OF THE ANALYSTS
However, smartphone makers' rush to implement their own processors comes with some risks. Namely, the chips may not perform as reliably as standardized offerings from established vendors, according to Eric Tseng, chief analyst at Isaiah Research.
“That's why we don't see many gamers boldly use their mobile processors and why most of them started developing image signal processing chips before,” Tseng told Nikkei Asia .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/con-il-proprio-chip-oppo-si-affranca-da-qualcomm-e-mediatek/ on Wed, 20 Oct 2021 13:56:51 +0000.