"Spring and autumn five bullies" of 5g chip

Release date：2021-12-29Author source：KinghelmViews：1586

AI chips generally show a pattern of "a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend", but 5g chips are very different. Only Huawei / MediaTek / Qualcomm / Spreadtrum / Samsung can launch 5g mobile phone baseband chips. It is hard to say who is the bully of the "five bullies" in the 5g era.

In the spring and Autumn period of Chinese history, with the decline of the Zhou royal family, some powerful vassal states joined forces and fought East and West, forming a specific historical product of the spring and Autumn Period - the five bullies of the spring and Autumn period. In today's wireless communication baseband chip field, because 5g is very different from the previous 3G and 4G standards, it should not only pursue higher data throughput, but also have greater network capacity and better service quality. Therefore, the R & D and design of baseband chip will be more complex. Only manufacturers with strong R & D strength and strong technology accumulation can withstand the test of the market.

5g chip is complex because it needs to be compatible with all previous frequency bands and systems. In the 4G era, what everyone often hears is "five mode and seventeen frequency". If we want to support China Telecom's 3G network, it is "six mode all Netcom". In the 5g era, it needs to be increased to "seven mode all Netcom", which can be seen from the complexity of 5g chip. Therefore, in the 5g era, few manufacturers can launch 5g mobile phone baseband chips, only Huawei / MediaTek / Qualcomm / Spreadtrum / Samsung, which is the "spring and autumn five bullies" of a 5g chip.

In history, Duke Huan of Qi adopted Guan Zhong's opinion, played the banner of "respecting the king and bustling the foreigners", united with other princes, attacked Shanrong in the north and Chu in the south, established prestige among the princes, convened a meeting of the princes, and even the Zhou royal family sent people to attend. He was the first overlord officially recognized by the Zhou royal family in the spring and Autumn period. This is Qualcomm.

Since Xiaomi released the first smartphone based on Qualcomm processor in 2011, coupled with the rapid development of China's mobile Internet, Qualcomm has become more and more important in the field of mobile terminal processor in China. Almost all domestic mobile phone manufacturers are proud to launch the first mobile phone based on Qualcomm's flagship processor in that year, just like Qi HuanGong in the field of mobile phone processor, Recognized as the "overlord", even models equipped with Qualcomm's medium and low-end processors are easier to gain consumer recognition than other manufacturers.

In the 5g era, Qualcomm is also in a leading position. Qualcomm x55 baseband processor is one of the most advanced 5g solutions so far. Multi mode supports 2G to 5g systems, covers all major frequency bands in all regions of the world, and achieves the highest 5g rate of 7gbps. Xiaolong x55 baseband is manufactured by the most advanced 7Nm process. A single chip can fully support 2G, 3G, 4G and 5g. Part of 5g fully supports millimeter wave and below 6GHz frequency bands, TDD time division duplex and FDD frequency division duplex modes, as well as SA independent networking and NSA independent networking modes.

After talking about the recognized "overlord" Duke Huan Qualcomm of Qi, let's talk about Duke Wen of Jin, who is good at making friends and uniting with the world. The state of Jin is located around the state of Qi, Chu and Qin. If it can't handle its relations with friendly countries, it is extremely difficult to maintain its own security. In history, Duke Wen of Jin invited King Xiang of Zhou and called Qi, song and other countries to practice the land and unite with princes. The history says: "Practicing the earth and meeting the league" became another overlord in the spring and Autumn period. Relying on Spreadtrum of Ziguang group, the mobile phone processor market has long been suppressed by Qualcomm, MediaTek and competition from other manufacturers. It has always been embarrassing in the domestic market. It is inferior to Qualcomm and MediaTek. However, Spreadtrum can widely communicate with manufacturers such as Samsung and Xiaomi, launch models equipped with its own processors for specific markets, and are exported to markets such as India.

Thanks to the long-term accumulation of Spreadtrum and radico in the RF field, Spreadtrum launched Ziguang chunteng 510, a 5g baseband chip based on TSMC 12NM in the first year of 5g. Although its performance can not be compared with that of Qualcomm, Huawei and other large manufacturers, it also supports a number of 5g key technologies. A single chip supports 2G / 3G / 4G / 5G communication modes, which conforms to the latest 3GPP R15 Standard Specification, It supports sub-6ghz band and 100MHz bandwidth. It is a 5g baseband chip with high integration, high performance and low power consumption. It also supports 5g SA independent networking and NSA non independent networking.

If you know a little about the long history of China, you know that after the spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, Qin defeated other vassal states one after another and created a unified Qin Empire. Duke mu of Qin in the spring and Autumn period was also one of the five bullies in the spring and Autumn period highly recognized by historians. Because he was located to the west of Hangu pass, the terrain was steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Duke mu of Qin, who dominated Xirong alone, once opened up more than a thousand miles of land, It laid the cornerstone for the later Qin Dynasty to unify China. However, comparing Huawei to Qin Mugong this time does not imply that it will unify the 5g chip market in the future, but because the self-produced and self sold mode of Huawei baseband chips is very similar to that of Qin. Moreover, Qin later adopted the strategy of distant communication and close attack, which is similar to Ren Zhengfei's statement to sell Huawei 5g technology to European and American countries rather than domestic mobile phone manufacturers.

Huawei's Balong 5000 is a single-chip multi-mode 5g module, which can realize 2G, 3G, 4G and 5g network systems in a single chip, effectively reducing the delay and power consumption caused by multi-mode data exchange. It also takes the lead in supporting the joint networking mode of NSA and SA around the world, and supports FDD and TDD to realize full band use. At the same time, the industry benchmark 5g peak download rate is realized, 4.6gbps in sub-6ghz (low frequency band, 5g main band) band and 6.5gbps in millimeter wave band, which is 10 times the experienced rate of 4G LTE.

Like the Duke mu of Qin who guarded Hangu pass, another king of Chu Zhuang, the five overlords of the spring and Autumn period, also occupied a geographical advantage. In history, King Zhuang of Chu stopped marching into the central plains under the suppression of Duke Huan of Qi, but he annexed some small countries, and his national strength should not be underestimated. This is also very similar to Samsung's market and position in China. As the first batch of foreign enterprises to enter the Chinese market, Samsung not only sells complete machine products, but also has mobile phone baseband processors. However, subject to the strength of Qualcomm in the domestic market, mobile phones equipped with Samsung processors are Meizu in addition to Samsung itself.

In terms of 5g chip, Samsung exynos modem 5100 chip is made by 10nm LPP process, supports sub 6GHz medium and low frequency and mmwave high frequency, and is downward compatible with 2G / 3G / 4G, including but not limited to GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, HSPA, 4G LTE, etc. Exynos modem 5100 can achieve the highest download rate of 2gbps at sub 6GHz and 6gbps at millimeter wave band. At the same time, the speed of 4G is also increased to 1.6gbps. Coupled with the newly released processor exynos 980 integrating 5g baseband, its ambition to seize the 5g chip market should not be underestimated.

In fact, when it comes to this, there is only one song Xianggong left in the spring and autumn five tyrants, and only MediaTek is left to launch 5g chips. In history, Duke Xiang of song was the spokesman of the great righteousness of the spring and Autumn period. This is because after the death of Duke Huan of Qi, there was civil strife in the state of Qi. Duke Xiang of song led the people of the state of Wei, the state of Cao and the state of Ying. After calming the civil strife, he did not replace him, but supported Duke Xiao of Qi, which made him famous. MediaTek has always been a unique presence in the field of mobile phone baseband processor.

Due to the good performance of the turnkey project, the Shanzhai machines used MediaTek's processor, and any mobile phone with a shell can be imitated. Nokia is the manufacturer suffering from it, but Hua qiangbei benefited a lot. Later, when the rise of Android phones and the disappearance of Shanzhai phones in China, MediaTek tried to get rid of the reputation of low-end processors. However, because the marriage of Xiaomi was only used on low-end Hongmi phones, it was still unable to compete with Qualcomm and Samsung. Even when Huawei was about to stand firm in the field of high-end processors, MediaTek was still hovering in the middle and low-end market.

This time, the Helio M70 5g launched by MediaTek adopts 7Nm process, is fully compatible with 4 / 3 / 2G downward, has a maximum download speed of 4.7gbps and an upload speed of 2.5Gbps, and supports dual modes of SA and NSA. Fully support millimeter wave and frequency band below 6GHz, TDD time division duplex and FDD frequency division duplex modes. Its largest market is still in the domestic medium and low-end products.

At the same time, as the most popular chip market at present, there is a large gap between 5g chip and artificial intelligence processor. In the field of artificial intelligence chips, although AI chips show the situation of two oligarchs of NVIDIA and Intel in the world, due to the main battlefield of artificial intelligence applications in China and the rapid development of Internet enterprises, AI chips generally show a pattern of "a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend".

However, in the field of 5g chips, this will no longer exist. On the one hand, due to the high technical barriers of 5g chips, it is necessary to have perennial technical accumulation; At the same time, unlike AI chips, which are closer to the downstream and oriented by application scenarios, 5g chips are more supportive of Internet applications and more inclined to the upstream, which has formed the current era of "five hegemonic princes in the spring and Autumn Period". Each family has its own market and strategy. It's hard to say who can win the Central Plains in the 5g era, We can only wait until 6G has another technological innovation to see which one falls behind and which one is new.

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