According to Taiwan media reports on April 5, after the smartphone manufacturer OPPO successfully launched its first self-developed imaging NPU chip MariSilicon X last year, its chip design subsidiary Shanghai Zheku will The self-developed application processor (AP) will be mass-produced and launched in 2023, and a mobile phone SoC (system on a chip) integrating 5G baseband will also be launched in 2024.
MariSilicon X
For the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers, self-developed chips have long been an indispensable core competitiveness. Whether it is Samsung, Apple, and Huawei that have already achieved success in self-developed chips, or OPPO, Xiaomi, and vivo that are currently working hard. Especially now that the global smartphone market is becoming saturated and competition is becoming increasingly fierce, self-developed chips can not only better realize the synergy of its own software and hardware and solve the pain points that users care about, but can also bring more benefits to mobile phone brand manufacturers. More differentiated selling points will also help to develop the high-end market.
Therefore, in 2019, OPPO has established a self-developed chip team, not only poaching former MediaTek COO Zhu Shangzu, former MediaTek Wireless Communications Division General Manager Li Zonglin, and former Qualcomm senior product Director Jiang Bo and other generals. It also announced that it would invest 50 billion yuan in related research and development fields within three years.
However, OPPO did not develop a more difficult and competitive mobile phone SoC like Xiaomi from the beginning. Instead, it chose the imaging NPU to make a breakthrough.
On December 14 last year, at the 2021 "OPPO Future Technology Conference", OPPO officially released the long-rumored first self-developed chip-Mariana MariSilicon X with 6nm process. Whether judging from the officially announced hardware index parameters or the image processing effect compared with competing products, MariSilicon X is undoubtedly a high-end imaging NPU chip with a high level.
Subsequently on February 24 this year, the first flagship Find X5 series equipped with MariSilicon X was also officially released. The first sales results of the Find X5 series are also very impressive, taking the double championship in sales and sales of all-price Android phones in OPPO Mall, JD.com, Tmall, and Suning.com.
After the success of MariSilicon Its chip R&D team has reached 2,000 people, many of whose core personnel are from first-line semiconductor manufacturers.
Obviously, if it is limited to the development of NPU chips or other related peripheral chips, there is no need for a chip R&D team of more than 2,000 people. The latest news also shows that OPPO is currently developing its own mobile phone AP and SoC chips.
According to reports, OPPO’s first self-developed AP chip is based on the Arm architecture processor core design and will be produced using TSMC’s 6nm process. It may be plugged into Qualcomm’s 5G baseband chip and is expected to be officially launched next year.
As for mobile phone SoCs that integrate 5G baseband, in addition to the AP that will be self-developed by OPPO, OPPO may also self-develop the 5G baseband part. However, there are also rumors in the market that OPPO intends to seek authorization from other manufacturers that already have 5G baseband technology. Industry insiders believe that based on OPPO’s technological advancement, the research and development of mobile phone SoC chips that integrate AP and baseband should be completed in 2024, and will be manufactured using TSMC’s 4nm process.
For OPPO, it is extremely difficult to independently develop baseband chips, and if it is to be used in smartphones, in addition to supporting 5G, it must also be compatible with 2/3/4G technology. This involves a large amount of communication technology research and development and patent thresholds. In addition, it will also involve field tests with global operators.
Not only is this investment huge, but the investment cycle is also very long. Therefore, Xinzhixun believes that OPPO is more likely to choose to cooperate with existing 5G baseband technology manufacturers for technical licensing.
You know, even if it is as strong as Apple, it has encountered many setbacks in its self-developed baseband chips. It was not until the acquisition of Intel's mobile phone baseband chip business in 2019 that it was further accelerated. It is expected that it will not be possible to launch an SoC integrating self-developed 5G baseband until next year at the earliest.
So, given that Huawei is currently unable to manufacture self-developed chips due to US sanctions, and its mobile phone business has also shrunk across the board, is it possible for OPPO to cooperate with Huawei, obtain Huawei's 5G baseband technology and patent authorization, and integrate it into What about your own mobile phone SoC?
Therefore, OPPO is more likely to choose to cooperate with other 5G baseband chip suppliers such as Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung, and Zhanrui.