This moment, a smartphone processor is only 0.5 cm away from your palm.
Although you can’t see it, after reading this article “Talking about Smartphone Processors”, you will understand that it is actually the most complex and understanding chip in the world.
The current domestic chip industry is flourishing, with various startups emerging one after another. For example, the DPU track, GPU track, AI track, and CPU track all have a group of companies involved.
However, no startup dares to challenge smartphone processor chips, and even major smartphone manufacturers start by making small chips.
In 2019, the global smartphone shipment was 1.4 billion units, which means there are 1.4 billion smartphone processors behind it. This is a business worth over hundreds of billions of RMB.On one hand, there is a huge shipment volume, and on the other hand, there are very few players. This is the distorted reality.
The existing smartphone SoC manufacturers include Apple A series, Samsung’s Exynos series, Huawei’s Kirin, Qualcomm Snapdragon, MediaTek, and Unisoc.Where are the other companies?
The reason is simple: the difficulty of smartphone processor chips is extremely high, enough to block such a hot trend of chip entrepreneurship.
Those who understand might say that smartphone processors are just a bunch of IPs combined together. Is assembling a chip enough to feel superior?
Smartphone processor chips are not just processors; they can also be referred to as smartphone SoC chips, where SoC means System On Chip.
The term SoC more accurately describes the functions of smartphone processor chips; it is a SYSTEM that includes CPU, GPU, DSP, ISP, 4G/5G baseband, NPU, WIFI, Bluetooth, GPS Beidou, display system, etc.
Even so, Hua Shao couldn’t finish talking about it in one breath.
This system is so complex that we must start from the development of smartphone processors.
If Apple is the king of the smartphone era, then Nokia is the king of the feature phone era.
The most famous manufacturer providing smartphone SoC chips during the feature phone era is TI (Texas Instruments).
TI (Texas Instruments) is a veteran chip design manufacturer.
When you mention TI, you definitely won’t feel sleepy. Because this company is closely related to integrated circuit chips; its history is essentially the history of integrated circuits.
In 1954, TI produced the world’s first transistor; in 1958, TI invented the world’s first integrated circuit. In 1982, TI released the world’s first digital signal processor DSP.
So, which domestic engineers and manufacturers working on digital signal processing have not used TI’s chips?
If you haven’t used it, you can’t claim to have done digital signal processing.
Later, TI released the smartphone processor OMAP series, which is a classic application processor. This processor was the first to propose the concept of heterogeneity, which is DSP + ARM processor.
This processor structure quickly won the favor of smartphone manufacturers, as it could handle various wireless communication digital signal processing tasks, ensuring call quality; after all, the most important function of feature phones was making calls.
Targeting core demands, who can match TI’s DSP capabilities?
At the end of 2004, when Nokia launched its first Series60 platform phone – 6630, it used TI’s masterpiece – OMAP1710.
The program processor model included in OMAP1710 is ARM926, with a maximum operating frequency of 220 MHz; at the same time, the level 1 cache of ARM926 has been increased to 32KB, achieving double that of the previous generation processor, and still supporting JAVA hardware acceleration; thus, TI claimed that OMAP1710 had a 40% performance improvement over the previous generation processor.
OMAP1710 adopted low-voltage technology, and the reduction in manufacturing process means a decrease in operating voltage; in ordinary standby mode, the power consumption is only 10mAh, making it an energy-saving master.
With Nokia’s product line continuously expanding, how many Nokia phones have used OMAP 1710? Countless, from 6630, 6680, 6681, E50, E60, E61, E62, E65, E70, N70, N71, N72, N73, N80, N90, N91, to N92, etc.
A single SoC running so many product lines and enduring for such a long time is unimaginable for smartphone SoCs in the smartphone era.
Of course, TI also continuously launched updated generations of SoC processors.
TI empowered Nokia, and Nokia also made TI the king of feature phone chips.
The king of feature phone chips, TI, occupied over 60% of the smartphone processor market share, which is something Qualcomm today cannot even imagine.
With good call quality and long standby time, TI achieved the man behind Nokia.
Seeing TI’s smooth sailing in the mobile field, other manufacturers also wanted to get a piece of the pie.
Which manufacturers are on this list?
This list is very long and includes big-name manufacturers such as Intel, Freescale, Marvel, Qualcomm, etc.
Intel’s Xscale series appeared very early. PXA210 is the culmination of this series.PXA210 is a chip based on ARM instruction set, internally called strongARM. Who would have thought Intel used the ARM instruction set?
Intel entered the mobile field early and had strong performance; it should have been the strongest mobile processor of that era. But to make a call or send a text, who needs such a powerful processor?
Ah, coming too early is not as good as coming at the right time. Born at the wrong time.
In the end, it was still old friend Bill Gates who came to help.
In order to open up the mobile market, Microsoft simultaneously launched a mobile-oriented system, WINCE. This was the combination of PXA210 + WINCE, trying to replicate the glory of PC-side X86 + WINDOWS.
This is a Dopod smartphone product from 2006, Intel PXA + WINCE combination. To be honest, it didn’t create any waves; it only became popular for a while in some small channels.
Files on computers, such as WORD, MP3, MP4, could be opened directly on the phone, and audio and video playback were not a problem, but at that time, it did not create a buying frenzy.
Intel and Microsoft both saw the embryonic form of future smartphones. The smartphone era is a time for heroes, and sooner or later, someone will come to save chip manufacturers.
Intel and Microsoft guessed the beginning but did not guess the end.
Because another person guessed it, that person is called Steve Jobs.
Although Intel’s products were leading in performance, there was not much performance anxiety in the feature phone era.
Intel still followed the PC business model, which was too lofty and disconnected from reality.
In 2005, the global smartphone application processor market reached $839 million, with Texas Instruments occupying 69%, Qualcomm 17%, and Intel only 7%.
Because the mobile field was far less profitable than Intel’s PC and server sectors, Intel sold the PXA mobile business to MARVEL and exited this field.
Intel, which was too lofty, left, and more down-to-earth chip companies came in.
In 2005, a company that initially developed optical drive chips completed the development of GSM samples and, in order to sell chips, integrated mobile application processors and GSM processors to provide MTK chip solutions, along with a complete SDK.
This company is MediaTek, whose founder Cai Mingjie is also known as the “father of counterfeit phones”.
Before the Android system, every manufacturer had to develop a set of mobile interfaces, which was still a bit difficult for small manufacturers.
MediaTek launched a one-stop mobile solution, integrating mobile chips and software platforms in advance, which significantly lowered the threshold for mobile manufacturers to produce phones; making phones became as easy as opening a restaurant.
In 2007, China’s mobile phone license was canceled, and countless small mobile manufacturers suddenly emerged in Shenzhen.
Did the times create heroes, or did heroes create the times?
From MediaTek and counterfeit phones, both caught the historical trend and created their own era.
Manufacturers in Huaqiangbei relied on MediaTek’s solutions to kill all directions and make a fortune.
When counterfeit phones were at their peak, annual sales reached 100 million units.
MTK chips made Huaqiangbei successful and also made MediaTek successful.
Heroes and times achieve each other. Although counterfeit phones have faded away, the legends surrounding them have never stopped.
In 2007, Steve Jobs launched the first-generation iPhone, and its 3.5-inch full touchscreen, metal body, and iPhoneOS truly opened the door to the smartphone era.
This iPhone 3G used Samsung’s SoC processor, S5L8900.S5L8900 was manufactured using 90nm technology, with a frequency range of 412-620Mhz, and internally used ARM11.
The most important feature is the integration of a GPU, PowerVRMBX-lite.The GPU is a standard configuration for smartphones and has importance exceeding that of the CPU. Imagination’s PowerVR is a leader in embedded GPUs.
Intel’s PXA series was also authorized to use PowerVR MBX’s GPU.
Qualcomm acquired ATI’s mobile GPU division Imageon and renamed it Adreno. At this time, it was still in the exploratory stage and had not yet formed a climate. It was even at a disadvantage compared to ARM’s Mali.
Using Samsung’s processor, Apple created the first iPhone.
And Apple also ignited Samsung’s desire to make processors.
Seizing the opportunity, Samsung launched the Exynos series, becoming one of the most important players in smartphone SoCs.
When the world saw the Apple phone, other mobile manufacturers began to feel anxious about how to compete with the Apple phone and iOS.
WINCE did not create any waves; the system was too similar to WINDOWS, both in concept and operation.
It was not capable of great use.
Android emerged as a result.
In fact, Android was not originally developed by Google; it was developed by the Android company founded by Andy Rubin.
Andy Rubin is also known as the father of Android. He is a legendary technical figure but not an excellent manager. Near the completion of development, the company was in extreme financial distress and had to rely on borrowing to survive.
This was not Andy Rubin’s first startup; as early as 2002, he and his friends founded a company called “Danger”, which invented a web-enabled smartphone called Sidekick.
In early 2002, Rubin gave a lecture to Silicon Valley engineers at Stanford University, during which he talked about the development process of Sidekick.
Among his audience were two individuals who, after class, approached Rubin to check out Sidekick and were deeply attracted by this new device that could access the internet. Indeed, who doesn’t like to go online?
These two individuals were Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google.
With this background, the Android company was short on funds, and in August 2005, Android was acquired by Google, which was one of Google’s most successful acquisitions.
In 2007, Android quickly launched its first version and established the Open Handset Alliance.
Android served global mobile manufacturers in an open-source manner, but at that time, no hardware phone company supported it.
By chance, HTC appeared.
HTC initially started as an OEM for smartphones, and its boss was Wang Xuehong. In 2008, it acquired Dopod, but in fact, Dopod and HTC were one family.
One was an OEM, and the other had its own brand, both playing with PXA + WINCE.
Having played with WINCE, HTC saw Android as an old friend and a new lover one must pursue.
So, it said goodbye to WINCE.
HTC’s CEO Zhou Yongming had negotiated with Rubin’s initial company Danger to manufacture Sidekick phones back in 2002; they were old acquaintances.
Not as good as new, but better than old.
Andy Rubin remembered Zhou Yongming, and Rubin promised Zhou Yongming that he would cooperate with HTC. HTC also sent about 50 engineers to work directly at Google headquarters.
Ultimately, the world’s first Android phone was born.
This Android phone achieved HTC’s brief glory in the Android era and ignited the smartphone SoC king’s rise.
In 2008, HTC launched the world’s first Android phone, T-Mobile G1, becoming the first challenger facing Apple’s iOS system.
This phone used Qualcomm’s MSM720 processor.
Originally, this Qualcomm processor was not specifically developed for Android.
It was initially used in WINCE.
HTC, familiar with this chip, was the first to use Qualcomm’s chip to make an Android phone.
Qualcomm MSM7201A adopted a dual-core solution (using ARM11 + ARM9 dual-core architecture), with an internal 3D graphics processing module and a 3G communication module. At the same time, the image module had high-resolution imaging and video playback, and streaming media performance was also outstanding.
Having come from a communication background, Qualcomm finally figured out how to make smart SoCs.
Big and small cores, GPU, integrated communication modules. This approach has been used to this day, achieving a generation of Snapdragon.
Subsequent manufacturers developing Android smartphones coincidentally chose Qualcomm when selecting smartphone SoCs.
Qualcomm, with its communication background, is very skilled in communication, as it holds the patents for CDMA and more, making the integration of communication processors a breeze.
In contrast, the original leader TI has two disadvantages:
On one hand: TI processors cannot cover all network standards, which means that manufacturers using OMAP chipsets had to purchase additional baseband chips after buying TI processors, increasing production costs and power consumption, leading to a significant reduction in market share.
On the other hand: Smartphone processors are updated very quickly, and TI’s manufacturing process is actually quite similar to Intel’s. If one designs and manufactures oneself, there will be demands for advanced manufacturing processes, and TI’s process cannot meet the insatiable demands of smartphone processors.
Unable to manage the baseband, unable to keep up with the rhythm.
Entering the smartphone era, TI’s market share continued to decline.
In 2012, TI decided to abandon the OMAP series processors and shift its focus from mobile chip markets to broader markets, including automotive manufacturing and industrial equipment.
TI and Nokia, both difficult brothers, did not abandon each other.
They disappeared together in the smartphone era.
And this also established Qualcomm’s position as the number one leader in the Android field.
HTC made Qualcomm successful but did not achieve success itself.
In 2017, HTC’s mobile business was on the verge of collapse, and Google announced it would spend $1.1 billion to acquire HTC’s mobile business.
Aside from patents, one important factor was that HTC launched the first Android phone. Also, HTC had sent 50 people to work together on development; those passionate years of fighting together were not in vain.
Ten years ago, I didn’t know you, and you didn’t belong to me; we built our careers together.
Ten years later, Android rises magnificently, while HTC has fallen; we were together but are forever apart.
After the launch of the first generation iPhone, it was like opening the door to the future of smartphones.
Apple quickly began to experience the greatest difference between smartphone SoCs and those before, which is the endless demand for performance from smartphones.
Smartphones are not only computers in pockets; they are also game consoles, cameras, and the culmination of all entertainment.
If there are frequent lags during critical entertainment moments, the smartphone’s companion, humanity, will have a poor experience. A poor experience will lead to infidelity.
Better smartphones require more excellent processors, and Apple’s self-developed processors came onto the agenda.
Apple did not have a chip R&D foundation, but that was not an issue.
In 2008, Apple acquired P.A.Semi, a chip manufacturer focused on embedded devices.
This was an unremarkable acquisition.
But it led to the hiring of a genius, Jim Keller. Jim Keller was the technical lead at P.A.Semi at the time of the acquisition, and this resulted in him joining Apple.
He is the same Jim Keller known as the father of AMD’s ZEN. At that time, he was still just an excellent chip designer, not yet the world-renowned chip genius.
Jim Keller thus became an employee of Apple. During his time at Apple, he led the design of the A4 and A5 mobile processors, which were used in iPhone4/4s, iPad/iPad 2, etc. This opened the path for Apple’s self-developed mobile processors.
Jim Keller recalled in an interview that the self-developed processors made Steve Jobs very satisfied.
In addition, while at Apple, Jim Keller began designing a big-core architecture for the mobile SoC project.
When a more powerful processor is needed, there are two ways to achieve it: one way is to make the basic structure larger, simply put, to have a big core. The second is to adjust functionality, creating a bunch of small cores. Obviously, the former is more difficult and more effective because not all programs can be executed in parallel on multiple cores, leading to certain designs where “one core has difficulty, and seven cores watch on.”
Apple’s SoC processors have always provided users with a stronger performance experience with fewer cores.
From then on, Apple’s SoC has always been the performance benchmark for smartphone SoC chips.
It has always been chased but never surpassed.
However, Apple’s SoC processors have never integrated communication processors, which has also been criticized.
Apple’s phones have always used Intel’s baseband, so they have been criticized for poor signals.
But to be fair, poor signals are not necessarily due to the separation of smartphone SoC and communication baseband; it is more likely due to the design of the baseband chip itself being subpar.
Compared to Qualcomm, which originated in communications, Intel’s reserves are somewhat weaker.
In 2019, Apple acquired Intel’s baseband business, completing the last puzzle piece.
However, the iPhone 12 still used Qualcomm’s baseband.
The puzzle is complete, but when it can be put together still needs some time.
Life is not always as one wishes. Even Apple has regrets.
As a complete machine manufacturer, Apple’s self-developed chips set a good precedent.
More manufacturers followed in their footsteps.
Huawei has arrived.
In 2011, Yu Chengdong was appointed chairman of Huawei’s terminal business, starting Huawei’s journey towards high-end smartphones.
Self-developed processors were just one part of it.
In 2012, Huawei released the K3V2, claiming to be the world’s smallest quad-core ARM A9 architecture processor. Integrating a GPU and using a 40nm manufacturing process, this chip received significant attention from Huawei’s mobile department and was directly commercialized in Huawei P6 and Huawei Mate1, being highly anticipated, as the Huawei P6 was positioned as a flagship product.
However, due to severe overheating and poor GPU compatibility, the chip was heavily criticized by netizens.
Using the self-designed chip, they had to endure the criticism from users.
After several iterations, by the time of the Kirin 9 series, it gradually improved.
On September 2, 2017, at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin, Huawei released the artificial intelligence chip Kirin 970. The first smartphone to use Kirin 970 was the Mate 10, officially launched in Munich, Germany, on October 16 of the same year.
Kirin 970 was not Huawei’s best chip, but it symbolized Huawei’s contribution to the entire smartphone SoC intelligent era.
Starting with Kirin 970, Huawei was the first to integrate a component that had never been seen before in smartphone SoC chips, the NPU.
Now, integrating AI acceleration components into smartphones is a consensus. At that time, very few people could recognize its significance.
The first Kirin chip to adopt Cambricon’s IP, later gradually shifted to the Da Vinci architecture.
A few days later, Apple’s A11 Bionic, which integrated NPU, was also released.
Heroes see alike,the era of “artificial intelligence” in smartphone SoCs has begun.
The NPU (Neural Processing Unit) of Huawei’s Kirin 970, the IPU (Image Processing Unit) inside Google Pixel 2, and Apple’s A11 Bionic are all dedicated hardware solutions for achieving the aforementioned functional characteristics.
Smartphone chip processors now include multi-core CPUs, multi-core GPUs, DSPs, ISPs, basebands, displays, security, etc.
Now the NPU has also joined the ranks.
Mobile photography has entered the era of “computational photography”, providing users with better shooting experiences, but it requires more frequent AI computations.
In 2020, Huawei HiSilicon was banned by the US from producing chips at Taiwan’s TSMC, and the Kirin 9000 became a swan song.
Huawei’s SoC was the first to introduce NPU, leading smartphones into the true “artificial intelligence” era.
While mobile “artificial intelligence” is still developing, Huawei’s processors can no longer produce new ones.
Where the person is, the peach blossoms still smile in the spring breeze.
Huawei people always say: the bird that cannot be burned is the phoenix. We look forward to the phoenix’s rebirth.
Today, smartphone SoC chips have reached 5nm technology, facing three major problems:complex design, increased costs, and difficulty in controlling power consumption.
The earliest smartphone SoC was just a CPU; now it has long exceeded the concept of a CPU. A multitude of manufacturers continuously add components.
TI added DSP inside. Qualcomm and MediaTek integrated communication processors. Samsung, Qualcomm, and Intel each added GPUs. Huawei and Apple brought in NPU.
Multiple ISPs have been introduced, supporting 2, 3, or 4 CMOS cameras.
The same goes for CPUs, from single-core to dual-core, big.LITTLE, quad-core, six-core, to now eight-core.
ARM architecture has evolved from A8A9 to A78, A79, to the current X1; from dual-issue in ARM A8 to quad-issue in A78, and now X1 has become five-issue.
GPUs have evolved from ARM’s MALI to Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU, and Apple has used Imagination’s PowerVR for many years. These subsystems, including CPU, GPU, imaging, AI, storage, wireless, security, etc.; are generally isolated in chip introductions or manuals.
However, the most critical aspect of an SoC is the interconnection of IPs and the flow of data, which is generally achieved through buses and various DMA modules. Various IP subsystems are connected through buses, while general or custom DMA modules facilitate data flow exchanges. This is what constitutes the entire complex SoC system.
This is a significant test of integration capabilities and also increases costs.
These cost increases are due to two aspects: one is the increase in area, and the other is that after 7nm, the cost of individual transistors has actually increased.
One-time investments, IP fees, and MASK fees are all increasing.
Everything is rising in price while global smartphone sales are decreasing.
A smartphone SoC approaches 80 to 90 square mm2, calculated at 7nm or 5nm. Such a large chip, if compared to AI chips, is expected to consume dozens of watts. However, smartphone SoC chips consume only a few watts, and the standby power consumption is even smaller.
How to control the power consumption of smartphone SoCs is the core issue, mainly through clock control, power shutdown, voltage regulation, and even dynamic voltage frequency adjustment, among other methods.
The following is a typical performance analysis chart of power consumption; green represents small cores, blue represents medium cores, and red represents large cores. The horizontal axis represents performance improvement, while the vertical axis represents energy consumption increase.
By using a qualified power consumption table, different cores can run under different loads. Shutting down other cores provides some basis.
Engineers know that under light loads, small cores run; as the load increases, medium cores take over; under high loads, only large cores can run in single-threaded mode. However, determining which core runs under which load is more economical; this can be seen from the chart.
With the improvement of single-threaded performance, there is also an increase in performance; how to ensure performance increases while running on reasonable power consumption is related to adjustments in chip firmware. This is also a test of the optimization capabilities of various manufacturers at the bottom level.
Currently, several 5nm processors have received feedback from users that power consumption is relatively high, being “fire dragons”.
Looking ahead, as integration increases under low manufacturing processes, more and more power consumption issues may arise.
The user experience of “smooth and silky” has brought about performance anxiety and battery anxiety. Performance issues are gradually being resolved, but battery issues have become more prominent. The demand for not being a “fire dragon” has not yet faded.
Smartphone SoCs lead the development of smartphones.
Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, Huawei, MediaTek, etc., the chips released each year are the battles between the top talents in chip design.
There are three key elements in a duel of experts: speed, courage, and intelligence. Experts must be fast, with an average of 12 months to iterate a chip with hundreds of billions of transistors. Missing a moment means missing a generation of smartphones.
Experts must be courageous; 7nm and 5nm are demanded by smartphone SoCs, pushing the development of manufacturing processes, complex integration but still demanding low power consumption; low manufacturing processes are a necessary yet unknown choice, a pathfinder in the unknown territory of chip manufacturing.
Experts must be intelligent; the product definition of smartphone SoCs has never been completed.
How to maintain uniqueness and gain user recognition in performance, power consumption, and experience becomes the chip that understands users the most.
As the brain of smartphones, smartphone processors are constantly evolving, becoming humanity’s closest assistant.
Meanwhile, humans addicted to smartphones are continuously devolving, becoming increasingly reliant on them.
It is an interesting yet ironic reality.
This article is for exchange and learning purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].
