Foreign media: China Chip's "fig leaf" has been torn open again

Tech 2023-05-19 12:08:12 Source: Network

Jay Chou Lanting Preface_ 20231917737.mp34:13From the Science and Technology New Knowledge MuseumThis article is original, please do not plagiarize or move, violators will be held accountableIn the self-developed chip team of domestic manufacturers, first-line mobile phone manufacturers have held up half of the sky

Jay Chou Lanting Preface_ 20231917737.mp34:13

From the Science and Technology New Knowledge Museum

This article is original, please do not plagiarize or move, violators will be held accountable

In the self-developed chip team of domestic manufacturers, first-line mobile phone manufacturers have held up half of the sky. Smartphones are the main sales market for chips, and a smartphone requires approximately hundreds of chips, including RF, audio, Bluetooth, baseband, SOC, and more.

Chinese mobile phone manufacturers have conducted self research projects in different chip fields, some achieving significant results, while others have reported giving up. OPPO once self-developed two chips, but now officially announced that it is giving up on terminating its chip research and development business. Some foreign media have stated that the "fig leaf" of China Chip has been torn open again.

Perhaps in the eyes of some people, self-developed chips are an easy task, especially in the chip design process. Isn't it just using EDA industrial software to draw chip patterns on a computer? Actually, it's not as simple as imagined.

This involves multiple disciplinary fields, including electronic engineering, computer science, physics, mathematics, etc., requiring designers to possess solid basic knowledge and professional skills. Specifically, it is further divided into market demand analysis, chip layout design, simulation and verification, circuit design, and so on. Any link requires a significant investment of time, manpower, and resources.

In addition, financial support is also essential. The cost of designing a high-end chip is very high, ranging from tens of millions of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars.

In the face of these difficulties, domestic manufacturers who want to overcome and persist one by one are all the pillars of domestic chips. Of course, there are also some domestic manufacturers who have fallen halfway down the mountain and have not been able to continue, such as OPPO.

According to information from OPPO, it stated that "in the face of the uncertainty of the global economy and the mobile phone market, after careful consideration, it has been decided to terminate the ZEKU business

ZEKU is a chip research and development company under OPPO. Currently, OPPO has launched two types of chips, namely Mariana X and Mariana Y, both of which were created by ZEKU. Industry sources have revealed that OPPO's third chip has already reached the FPGA verification stage, and OPPO has decided to give up before it reaches the chip production stage.

If OPPO can successfully launch the third chip, regardless of the final performance, it is of great significance for the development of domestic chips. As OPPO abandons its self-developed chip project, some foreign media have stated that the "fig leaf" of China Chip has once again been torn open, revealing that there are still many areas for progress in China's self-developed chip project and many issues to consider.

The first issue is capital.

Self developed chips are a very expensive project. Although the capital investment in chip design is less than that in chip manufacturing, maintaining a large R&D team to carry out projects also requires significant capital strength.

Moreover, in recent years, the smartphone market has been difficult to develop. OPPO's chips have been used in high-end phones, and Apple has taken 85% of the profits from the high-end phone market. The remaining manufacturers want to share the rest of the profits and feed the chip team, which is a "gold devouring beast", which is likely to drag down the entire company.

If self-developed chips no longer make money, the choice of capital will only stop losses in a timely manner.

Next is the issue of underlying technology.

Chip design relies heavily on software systems, requiring support from EDA industrial software and authorization from ARM architecture. Nowadays, the United States has imposed restrictions on these aspects, and the EDA market is monopolized by the three major American companies, Xinsi Technology, Kaideng Electronics, and Siemens. The United States does not allow them to freely provide high-end EDA technology.

Moreover, ARM's most advanced V9 architecture cannot be exported to the Chinese market. Without the support of underlying technology, it is easy to get stuck. Domestic manufacturers need to start with the underlying technology and master their own EDA industrial software and architecture technology. But achieving these goals is not something that can be accomplished overnight, and requires long-term effort.

Another issue is market competition.

After the chip was finally made, it had to be sold in the consumer market and integrated into terminal products to provide service guarantees for consumers. With so many similar chips on the market, how to win market competition is a key issue.

Qualcomm is a giant in mobile terminal chips, with Snapdragon chips distributed across models from major mobile phone manufacturers. Additionally, Qualcomm also has the ability to tie in chips, which means that after purchasing Snapdragon chips, other baseband, Bluetooth, and other chips also need to use Qualcomm's.

This has led to Qualcomm's chips occupying a large market share, making it difficult for other chip manufacturers to enter. Without market returns, companies will lose revenue sources, and without revenue, they will not be able to sustain their chip research and development teams, ultimately leading to the scene of OPPO giving up on self-developed chips. The market competition is too fierce, and the limited share is not enough to support the company's continued growth.

So developing self-developed chips is not an easy task. Judging from OPPO's decision to abandon self-developed chips, we also know how difficult it is for Huawei. Huawei established its chip research and development department, HiSilicon Semiconductor, in 2004, and HiSilicon is still committed to research and development. Huawei has said that as long as it can afford to keep it, it will continue to keep it.

The abandonment of OPPO brings a certain warning, and we hope that the public can provide more support to domestic manufacturers who are still insisting on developing their own chips.

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