Major chip manufacturers and equipment manufacturers are engaged in an aerial competition, making drones a hot new product. The reason is that if drones are always positioned as personal consumer products, their market capacity is actually quite limited, and manufacturers’ enthusiasm would not be so high. However, as their demand in agricultural, logistics, and other application scenarios continues to be explored, a frenzy that could sweep through the upstream and downstream of the industry naturally follows.
However, looking at the upstream chip suppliers in the drone market, especially the main control chips, they are still dominated by European, American, and Korean manufacturers. I have compiled the current 13 mainstream drone chips for your reference:
1. Qualcomm
Main Control: Qualcomm Snapdragon Chip. It has functions such as wireless communication, sensor integration, and spatial positioning. It uses “RealSense” technology to build 3D maps and perceive the surrounding environment, allowing it to fly like a bat and actively avoid obstacles.
To ensure Qualcomm inside, to bring its chip advantages into the drone field, Qualcomm started acquisitions and investments in 2015. In February, it acquired the drone R&D company KMEL Robotics, and at the end of the same month, led a $50 million Series C investment in 3DR, a competitor in the consumer field of DJI. In addition, Qualcomm launched the drone design platform Snapdragon Flight in September.
The fundamental advantage of Snapdragon Flight lies in reducing the manufacturing cost and price of drones. Digging deeper, it is because 1. Qualcomm’s drone chips have the same processors as smartphones, and may include some other identical components, achieving economies of scale to bring cost optimization effects; 2. The chips are highly integrated, saving the combined costs of multiple high-priced modules, which reportedly account for 30% to 40% of the drone’s total cost.
Compared to the current main drone chip solutions, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Flight has the smallest CPU size and the highest main frequency. It has been applied to domestic manufacturers’ small drone products like the Hover Camera from Zero Zero Robotics and the selfie drone Dobby from Zero Tech.
2. Intel
Main Control: Intel Atom Processor. It is equipped with up to 6 Intel “RealSense” 3D cameras, using a PCI-express custom card with a quad-core Intel Atom processor to process real-time information about distances and how to avoid nearby obstacles.
As traditional PC sales continue to decline, Intel is shifting its chip business to the booming drone battlefield. However, compared to selling end products, Intel is more enthusiastic about providing solutions for drones, especially in the area of drone vision. Intel’s greatest advantage lies in its RealSense technology using infrared lasers, which avoids a lot of computations required for computer vision object recognition compared to Qualcomm’s binocular vision technology, effectively improving accuracy.
In terms of market, Intel spent $60 million in 2015 to hire Typhoon H for promoting RealSense in the consumer market and recently launched the Aero drone aimed at developers, which is also equipped with RealSense technology.
In addition, Intel had previously invested in two drone companies, Airware and Precisionhawk, and acquired wearable device and smart glasses manufacturer Recon, as well as the German drone manufacturer Ascending Technologies focused on algorithm research in 2015.
3. STMicroelectronics
Main Control: ST STM32 Series. ST’s full set of MEMS gyroscopes, accelerometers, sensors, and power management chips.
ST’s STM32L0 series microprocessors based on ARM’s Cortex – M0+ architecture focus on ultra-low power consumption, with primary application scenarios in wearables, medical, and industrial sensor fields. ST officially told us that this year they have high expectations for drones. Previously, a large number of STM32 F0 and F4 series products had been used in drones.
4. Texas Instruments
Main Control: TI OMAP3630. Micron flash memory, Texas Instruments power management + USB solutions, Atheros 802.11b/g/n WiFi controller, Bosch BMA150 accelerometer, BMP180 barometer, and IMU-3000 gyroscope and motion processor from Analog Devices, and Microchip’s PIC24HJ microcontroller.
5. Samsung
Main Control: Samsung Artik Chip. Artik 10 features a 1.3GHz octa-core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB flash memory. It includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy, ZigBee, and Thread.
Samsung launched the low-power Artik chip in May 2015, with three specifications, where Artik1 is only 12mm*12mm and priced under $10. It is reported that the specifications differ in processing speed, storage capacity, and wireless communication capabilities. This chip is aimed at drones and smart home devices. The industry generally believes that Artik will become Samsung’s killer weapon against Qualcomm and Intel, but strictly speaking, Samsung is still a latecomer.
6. Atmel
Main Control: ATMEL MEGA2560 Development Board
AT91M55800A, ARM7TDMI core, embedded ICE interface, storage, and peripherals.
7. NVIDIA
Compared to Intel’s attempt to enter the drone market using its processors to make up for the sluggish PC sales, NVIDIA has no urgent reason to enter the drone market, as its core GPU graphics processor business has grown at a rate of 7% annually, accounting for 82% of its revenue in the first half of 2016.
In 2015, NVIDIA provided chips for Parrot and its competitor DJI, and developed the Jetson TX1 chip solution for the drone market, capable of handling various image recognition and advanced AI tasks. Drones using it can stay in the air longer. It is reported that NVIDIA has also provided chip solutions for both DJI and its competitor Parrot. Of course, NVIDIA does not limit the potential of the TX1 motherboard to drone applications; it can also be used in robots, IoT devices, or laboratory equipment. NVIDIA also provides developers with computer vision libraries like OpenVX1.1 to help developers utilize the motherboard.
8. Nuvoton
Main Control: Nuvoton MINI5 Series
Low-end remote control uses SOP20 packaged 4T 8051 N79E814; mid-to-high-end remote controls use Cortex-M0 M051 series with built-in ARM9 and H.264 video codec N329 series.
9. XMOS
Main Control: XMOS XCORE Multicore Microcontroller
With a frequency of up to 500MHz and a 32-bit RISC core, equipped with Hardware Response I/O interfaces. Multiaxis flying vehicles require four to six brushless motors to drive the drone’s rotors. The motor driver controller is used to control the speed and direction of the drone. In principle, one motor requires one 8-bit MCU for control, but there are also solutions where one MCU controls multiple BLDC motors.
10. Rockchip
Main Control: Rockchip RK3288
Rockchip has showcased drone products based on RK3288, but this time it is the first domestic demonstration and test flight.
It is reported that this drone product adopts a quadrotor design with a wheelbase of 300mm and is based on the Rockchip RK3288 processor, with the camera and body integrated into one, supporting 1080p video recording. The body weighs about 730g, with a battery life of 14 minutes. Functionally, it supports one-click panoramic, return home on loss of control, point cruise, one-click selfie, one-click fly-around, and geofencing.
11. Allwinner
Founded in Zhuhai, Guangdong, Allwinner launched the R8 portable internet TV solution last year; collaborated with JD Smart to launch the “Dingdong” smart speaker (Allwinner R16 solution); and successfully crowdfunded nearly $2 million for the $9 computer Banana Pi from Next Thing (Allwinner R8 solution).
These three products are based on Allwinner’s R series chips aimed at the IoT market. Remix launched the first “Android PC” based on Allwinner A64 chips – Remix Mini, which successfully crowdfunded nearly $1.5 million on Kickstarter. The main control solution for Xiaomi drones also uses Allwinner’s latest R16 platform.
12. Leadcore
The DJI Phantom 4 has used the Leadcore solution LC1860, and Zero Tech has also launched a binocular vision solution based on the Leadcore LC1860. It is reported that Leadcore has also jointly established Pinecone Electronics with Xiaomi, focusing on the smart hardware field.
13. Huawei HiSilicon
Huawei has entered the drone field. Its wholly-owned subsidiary HiSilicon previously held 70% of the market share in the security camera market. In July 2016, to give wings to these security cameras, it launched the Huawei drone platform, collaborating with local startup Zhouxin Technology to launch a series of drone solutions based on HiSilicon chips.
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