UNISOC and Xiaomi’s 4nm Chips Said to Challenge Qualcomm and MediaTek
Recently, it was reported online that Xiaomi and Spreadtrum have both successfully taped out 4nm chips.Both chips are domestically made commercial chips based on ARM technology. In this regard, industry expert Tie Liu said that such chips are very advantageous in competing with Qualcomm and MediaTek in the commercial market, but they should not enter the policy market under the banner of self-control.It is worth noting that Unisoc and Xiaomi have never intended to enter the policy market. They have not advertised ARM chips as self-controllable, but have always developed their own ARM chips based on business logic and business narrative. For these manufacturers, Tieliu wishes them a bright future.
Spreadtrum and Xiaomi 4nm chip specificationsSpreadtrum's 4 nm mobile phone chip uses X1 large core + A78 medium core + A55 small core, and the GPU is Mali G715 MC7. The CPU performance should be slightly stronger than Snapdragon 888, but weaker than Snapdragon 8 Gen1, and the power consumption is better than Snapdragon 888. The baseband integrates Spreadtrum's own baseband.Xiaomi's Xuanjie is an AP that uses X3 large core + A715 medium core + A510 small core, IMG CXT 48-1536 GPU, 4/5 nm manufacturing process, and a high probability of external MediaTek baseband. The CPU performance is estimated to be comparable to Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen2. Due to the external baseband, the Xuanjie + MediaTek baseband solution is slightly inferior to Qualcomm's integrated solution in terms of cost, chip area, and power consumption.
Spreadtrum needs support from domestic mobile phone manufacturersJudging from the data, Spreadtrum is the No. 1 mobile phone chip manufacturer in China in terms of shipments.In the first quarter of 2024, Unisoc shipped 26 million chips, second only to MediaTek, Qualcomm and Apple. Transsion's best-selling mobile phones in Asia, Africa and Latin America basically use Unisoc chips.However, in the domestic market, Spreadtrum is relatively rare. This is mainly because Qualcomm and MediaTek are relatively strong in brand, and domestic OEMs are more willing to use Qualcomm and MediaTek chips. Only marginal manufacturers such as ZTE will use Spreadtrum in large quantities.
In fact, Qualcomm faced similar problems when it first entered the mobile phone chip market.
Qualcomm gradually surpassed TI with its 3G baseband advantage and became the leader in mobile phone chips. MediaTek was initially mainly used in knockoff phones, but the support of the Chinese market enabled MediaTek to grow and eventually surpass Qualcomm in market share.Spreadtrum's current industry position is similar to that of Qualcomm and MediaTek 15 years ago. What is needed is a platform to form a positive cycle in the commercial market. Spreadtrum's chips can completely replace the mid- and low-end chips of Qualcomm and MediaTek. Domestic mobile phone manufacturers should give Spreadtrum more opportunities.
The future of Xuanjie depends on Xiaomi's determinationDue to the division of labor and prosperity of the IC design industry, there are mature solutions for IPs such as CPU, GPU, interconnect, memory controller, and various interfaces, which are all available on the market. The CPU and GPU of domestic mobile phone chips are highly dependent on ARM.
Last year, ARM went public in the United States, and according to IPO documents, the Chinese market accounted for 38% of its revenue.The ARM chip industry is very mature. An industry leader once publicly stated that it only takes a few hundred million yuan in funding, no technical personnel, and only a few administrative assistants to develop an ARM chip (the front-end design purchases IP cores from ARM, and the back-end design is outsourced). In contrast, BP cannot directly purchase source code like ARM's CPU and GPU, but can only purchase chips, such as Apple purchasing Qualcomm's baseband. Therefore, for latecomers in mobile phone chips, BP is the bottleneck technology. To make an AP, the completeness of the IC design industry chain makes it possible as long as there is funding.The key to Xiaomi's success in developing AP lies in how much resources and funds it is willing to invest.
Previously, The Paper and Zheku were abandoned because their commercial returns were far lower than their investment, but for Xiaomi now, it has reached the point where it must independently develop mobile phone chips.
n the one hand, the mobile phone industry has entered the stock market, and the competition is more intense. Xiaomi's rise lies in the integration of the industrial chain and viral marketing. However, marketing is both a success and a failure. Xiaomi has been labeled as "mai ban" by its competitors in public opinion. Although competitors also use Qualcomm chips and sell Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 for 1999 yuan (799 yuan for Redmi with the same configuration), this does not prevent the fans of competitors from misleading consumers with double standards. Therefore, Xiaomi must have an independent mobile phone chip to prove itself.On the other hand, Lei Jun has already focused his main energy on car manufacturing. As a new force in car manufacturing, in order to achieve differentiated competition, the best approach is to tell stories through intelligence, and to achieve intelligence, it is necessary to have independent car chips and OS.Since Xuanjie is just an AP without an integrated baseband, it is impossible for Xiaomi to replace Qualcomm and MediaTek with Xuanjie. At most, it will open a single product series and use Xuanjie for all products.In short, the future Xiaomi Mi 15 digital series will continue to use Qualcomm chips, and Xiaomi will open a separate product series for mid-range mobile phones equipped with the Xuan Ring.
SummarizeIf Xiaomi and Spreadtrum have successfully taped out 4 nm chips as rumored online, it will mark an important progress made by domestic mobile phone chips in the commercial market. In a market dominated by Qualcomm and MediaTek, the efforts of Spreadtrum and Xiaomi deserve recognition. Domestic mobile phone manufacturers should support Spreadtrum more to form a positive cycle in the commercial market. Xiaomi's determination to independently develop mobile phone chips will determine its future direction in the fierce market competition. I hope that Spreadtrum and Xiaomi will continue to make brilliant achievements in their future development.What do you think about the topic of "Xiaomi and Spreadtrum successfully tape out 4 nm chips"?Is Xiaomi preparing to do something big and become number one in the world?
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