Recently, due to an acquisition case from three years ago, the relationship between Arm, a major chip design architecture company, and its long-time client Qualcomm has soured.
The root of the conflict lies in Qualcomm’s acquisition of the startup Nuvia in 2021. Nuvia, founded in 2019 by former Apple engineers, is a chip design architecture company that competes with Arm, focusing on the server and PC markets. It claimed that its Phoenix CPU cores could provide 50% to 100% higher peak performance than Arm CPU cores at the same power consumption.
Reports indicate that Arm is canceling its chip design licensing agreement with Qualcomm, which allowed Qualcomm to design its own chips based on Arm’s standard architecture. However, whether or not Arm agrees to license its architecture to Nuvia, Qualcomm’s determination to develop its own architecture remains unchanged. In October of this year, Qualcomm launched its second-generation Oryon architecture.
In fact, in recent years, mobile SoC manufacturers have gradually explored developing their own architectures.
1. History of Mobile SoC Development
At the dawn of mobile phones, their functions were limited to simple communication, requiring no powerful processors. However, as mobile phone capabilities expanded, the demand for processing power increased, leading to the emergence of various mobile SoCs. OMAP, launched by Texas Instruments, is an open multimedia application platform architecture that uses low-power ARM architecture processors suitable for mobile platforms. Nokia’s N70, N95, N900, and N9 all used Texas Instruments OMAP processors.
Another major SoC supplier for Nokia was Freescale, which was spun off from Motorola’s semiconductor division in 2004. Freescale was also a significant mobile processor supplier during the feature phone era, with Nokia’s 5320, N81, and E62 using Freescale MXC300-30 processors.
In 2000, Samsung launched its first SoC, the S3C44B0, based on ARM7 architecture, manufactured using a 250nm process, with a frequency of 66MHz. By 2002, it was used in the world’s first true smartphone, the Danger Hiptop.
During the feature phone era, Texas Instruments OMAP and Freescale processors dominated the market. At this time, SoCs mainly integrated basic processing functionalities and began attempts to combine baseband and application processors onto a single chip.
With the rise of the iPhone and smartphones, the smartphone market rapidly evolved, entering an era of widespread smart mobile devices, where functionality demands far exceeded those of feature phones, necessitating more powerful processors and higher graphic processing capabilities, significantly changing the mobile SoC landscape.
New suppliers like Qualcomm and MediaTek quickly emerged, launching their own mobile SoCs, while existing suppliers such as Texas Instruments and Freescale continued investing in R&D, intensifying market competition. Even Nvidia (Tegra series) and Intel introduced their own SoC products.
In 2011, Apple’s A-series processors gained prominence in the smartphone market. By 2013, the first 64-bit SoC was born, marking a significant breakthrough in mobile SoC technology. Additionally, Qualcomm’s strong performance, robust communication features, and bundled baseband strategies made it popular, while MediaTek’s cost-effectiveness and powerful functionalities won over consumers and smartphone manufacturers.
Recently, as Samsung’s Exynos competitiveness declined and Huawei’s Kirin chips faced production restrictions, the mobile SoC market has gradually formed a triad consisting of Qualcomm Snapdragon, MediaTek Dimensity, and Apple A-series processors.
In October 2024, Qualcomm released its new flagship mobile SoC, Snapdragon 8 Elite, utilizing TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, significantly boosting performance. MediaTek also introduced its new flagship 5G AI chip, Dimensity 9400, which also employs advanced 3nm technology and excels in AI and gaming performance.
As technologies like 5G and AI continue to evolve, the applications for mobile SoCs are expanding. For instance, in applications like autonomous driving and smart assistance vehicles, the combination of edge computing and machine learning has significantly enhanced operational efficiency. Meanwhile, enhanced connectivity features in SoCs (including 5G and Wi-Fi 6 technologies) meet the demands of an ultra-connected world.
2. Current Main Mobile SoC Manufacturers
According to market research firm Canalys, the global smartphone processor shipment share in the second quarter of 2024 (April to June) is as follows: ① MediaTek 40% ② Qualcomm 25% ③ Apple 16% ④ Unisoc 9% ⑤ Samsung Exynos ⑥ HiSilicon ⑦ Google. In terms of revenue, the top three are: ① Apple (39% revenue share) ② Qualcomm (26%) ③ MediaTek (19%). These represent the main current mobile SoC manufacturers.
Apple
Apple Inc. is a globally recognized tech giant, and its self-developed A-series SoCs, like A16 and A17 Pro, hold a stellar reputation in the smartphone market. These SoCs are designed specifically for iPhones, integrating high-performance CPUs, GPUs, and neural engines for exceptional performance and energy efficiency.
Apple’s history in chip development dates back to 1986, going through numerous ups and downs before experiencing a turning point in 2007 with the launch of the iPhone. Since then, Apple’s profitability has surged, and it has matured into a formidable player.
In 2008, Apple secretly acquired P.A. Semi, with most of its 150 talented engineers remaining with Apple. The same year, Apple hired Johny Srouji, who still leads Apple’s chip team. At the end of January 2010, the A4 processor debuted with the first iPad, designed by modifying Samsung’s S5PC110 (Hummingbird) processor and built on Samsung’s 45nm process. While its performance was not groundbreaking at the time, it marked the beginning of Apple’s processor development journey.
Subsequently, Apple acquired Intrinsity, bringing over a hundred chip talents, which accelerated the development of its next-generation processors. In March 2011, the A5 processor launched with the iPad 2, featuring a dual-core design that significantly enhanced performance, later being used in the iPhone 4S. The A5’s introduction marked Apple’s ascent to leading processor development.
At this year’s fall event, Apple unveiled the A18 chip, which powers the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, built on a 3nm process.
Qualcomm
Qualcomm is a global leader in wireless communication technology, and its Snapdragon series SoCs hold a significant position in the smartphone market.
In November 2007, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon processor (renamed “骁龙” in 2012). By 2013, Qualcomm established a new naming convention and hierarchy for Snapdragon processors, including the Snapdragon 800 series, 600 series, 400 series, and 200 series. The Snapdragon 8 series serves as Qualcomm’s flagship SoC series, including Snapdragon 8 Gen2, Snapdragon 8 Gen3, and Snapdragon 8 Elite, employing advanced manufacturing processes and architectures for powerful performance and energy efficiency.
In 2017, Qualcomm rebranded the “Snapdragon Processor” to “Snapdragon Mobile Platform,” enhancing its image as a comprehensive solution integrating “hardware, software, and services,” encompassing Qualcomm’s application processors, RF front-end, fast charging, Wi-Fi, audio, fingerprint recognition, and other advanced technologies.
In November 2021, Qualcomm announced that Snapdragon would become an independent product brand, adopting a simplified and consistent naming system to facilitate user choices for Snapdragon-enabled devices. The naming convention for the Snapdragon mobile platform will feature a single digit followed by a generation number, aligning with the naming principles of other platform categories.
On October 22, 2024, the fourth-generation Snapdragon 8 mobile platform was unveiled at the Snapdragon Technology Summit, announcing support for eight years of Android version updates. Snapdragon 8 Gen4 employs Qualcomm’s custom Oryon core, moving away from Arm’s standard architecture, and integrates the Adreno 830 GPU.
MediaTek
MediaTek Inc. is the fourth largest fabless semiconductor company globally, leading in markets like mobile devices, smart home applications, wireless connectivity technologies, and IoT products, with around 2 billion devices featuring MediaTek chips launched worldwide each year. Its Dimensity series SoCs are widely recognized in the market.
MediaTek officially joined the “Open Handset Alliance” initiated by Google to promote the Android operating system on July 12, 2010, to develop its “dedicated Android smartphone solutions.”
In 2019, MediaTek launched its new 5G chip brand, Dimensity. The 9000 series serves as the flagship of the Dimensity lineup, employing advanced manufacturing processes and powerful CPU and GPU architectures, delivering exceptional performance for high-end smartphones.
On October 9, 2024, MediaTek announced the Dimensity 9400 chip, built on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, featuring a second-generation full big core design architecture, debuting Arm’s latest Cortex-X925 super-large core CPU and Arm Immortalis-G925 GPU core, achieving a 35% boost in single-core performance and a 28% boost in multi-core performance.
Samsung
Samsung has a history of developing processors for its devices, with some chips also used in other brands’ devices, including the first three generations of iPhones. In February 2011, Samsung officially named its processor brand Exynos, primarily for use in smartphones and tablets.
Despite significant investment in its self-developed SoCs, Samsung’s Exynos series has not performed notably in the market recently, with rumors even suggesting a potential abandonment of its flagship SoC development. In July 2024, reports emerged that Samsung is developing the Exynos 1580 chip, internally codenamed “Santa,” intended for the Galaxy A56 smartphone set to release in 2025.
Recently, Samsung quietly unveiled the new Exynos 1580 chip on its website, featuring a significant upgrade with a tri-cluster CPU design, including one 2.9GHz Cortex-A720 core, three 2.6GHz A720 cores, and four 1.95GHz small A520 cores. This chip is built on a 4nm FinFET process, equipped with an NPU offering 14.7 TOPS of computing power.
Huawei
As a globally recognized provider of communication equipment and smartphone manufacturer, Huawei’s Kirin series SoCs once became a hallmark of its smartphones. However, due to well-known reasons, progress on the Kirin series SoCs faces challenges. Nonetheless, Huawei’s efforts and achievements in self-developed SoCs remain commendable.
Unisoc
Unisoc is the chip flagship under the Tsinghua Unigroup, formed by the merger of Spreadtrum and RDA Microelectronics. Reports show that Unisoc’s smartphone chip global market share reached 13% in Q2 2024, ranking third.
In terms of both shipments and sales revenue, Unisoc’s largest customer is Transsion, a domestic company highly popular in the African market, followed by realme and Lenovo. Currently, Unisoc primarily relies on overseas markets, especially through its partnership with Transsion, significantly boosting its shipments.
3. Trend of Self-Developed Architectures among SoC Manufacturers
As an advanced processor architecture, the ARM architecture is widely used in smartphones, tablets, and various terminal devices. Currently, the vast majority of mobile SoCs utilize ARM architecture; however, in recent years, major manufacturers have gradually begun to shift towards developing their own architectures.
Since 2016, Qualcomm has continuously iterated and upgraded in terms of chip processes and pricing, with the 2024 Snapdragon 8 Gen4 representing a significant leap. This chip will feature Qualcomm’s self-developed Oryon CPU based on TSMC’s 3nm process, promising substantial performance improvements. Unlike MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400, the Snapdragon 8 Gen4 will completely abandon ARM architecture, fully transitioning to Qualcomm’s self-developed Oryon architecture. With the addition of GPU, NPU, ISP, and baseband, Qualcomm now possesses comprehensive self-developed SoC capabilities.
Huawei’s architecture currently includes CPU, GPU, NPU, ISP, and baseband architectures. Kirin chips essentially used ARM instruction sets in their self-developed microarchitectures. Before the emergence of the Kirin 9000s, Kirin chips mainly employed ARM CPU/GPU cores. With ARM no longer licensing the latest chip architectures, Huawei has also begun developing its own architecture.
Additionally, MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 employs a black eagle architecture design and is deeply involved in its development.
The advantages of self-developed architectures lie in better software and hardware optimization to meet higher market demands for performance and efficiency. Using self-developed architectures allows manufacturers greater design flexibility and innovation potential. Compared to ARM’s standard architecture, manufacturers can conduct more precise customization and optimization according to their needs, particularly in key areas like large-scale AI processing, multi-tasking concurrency, and energy savings, allowing Qualcomm to explore more innovative endeavors.
On the other hand, with the rising popularity of the AIPC concept, mobile chip manufacturers are gradually launching AIPC chips. Through self-developed architectures, manufacturers can provide more targeted optimizations, thereby gaining stronger competitiveness in the PC field.
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