Qualcomm/Apple/MediaTek: Mobile CPU those things

Now people buy mobile phones, are more concerned about the use of what CPU, because the CPU directly determines the performance of the phone, the CPU on the phone is like a human brain, it is the entire mobile phone control system, is also the logical part of the control center. Also equivalent to the engine of the car, the more powerful the engine, the faster the car ran, the same CPU performance, the more mobile phone running will be smoother, large-scale game HD video is a cinch.

The CPU is not confined to the narrow CPU, which can be understood as a highly integrated soc.

The birth of a CPU needs a lot of manufacturers to work together, the need for technical content is very high, there is no certain technical precipitation is not able to complete a CPU design production, the mainstream of the market several CPU manufacturers, their situation is what kind of?

The CPU of a mobile phone is roughly the same as a computer's CPU, first of all to have the corresponding instruction set, the core architecture, then the design, then the manufacturing, testing and encapsulation.

Starting with the CPU instruction set, the instruction set is the most primitive prerequisite for the birth of a CPU, simply speaking, it is the command that instructs the CPU to do something and give it the order.

For now, there are two companies that have the ability to develop mobile CPU instruction sets: ARM and Intel.

ARM's ARMV5/ARMV6/ARMV7/ARMV8 instruction set

Common chip design vendors such as Apple, Samsung, Qualcomm, MTK, Nvidia, HiSilicon and other chip manufacturers are based on arm instruction set, occupy the market share of 90%. Arm is a design of the chip instruction set and architecture of the company, technical knowledge is strong, it is the use of simplified instruction set (RISC), characterized by uniform instruction format, less variety, high efficiency. It does not do the CPU, but to the hardware manufacturers to license these technologies, profit from it.

Intel's X86 instruction set

Everyone's impressions of Intel may still be at the level of a computer CPU, and today, the computer-CPU maker faces the growing market for smart-phone chips, and has begun to dabble in the CPU market of portable terminals two years ago.

Intel has a very strong financial and technical strength, not only the instruction set and architecture of independent intellectual property rights, but also has the independent design and manufacturing capacity of the CPU, such as arm purely design core architecture to authorize profit, other chip factory is authorized by arm to design or manufacture, And Intel this unique advantage of other manufacturers can not match, but even so, at this stage, it in the mobile phone CPU market performance a little bit, although there is a great multithreading technology, the latest product is more than a year ago that the Atom Z2580.

After talking about the core instruction set of the CPU, the core architecture problem follows.

In addition to Intel has this ability to self-development instruction set, of course, arm itself also provides architecture to manufacturers, but also authorized way, but some vendors unwilling to mediocrity, or have special requirements, strength also allow, take arm provides instruction set, to develop their own CPU architecture.

ARM cortex-a Architecture

ARM is the industry's leading microprocessor technology provider, offering the widest range of microprocessor cores, and arm's place is not only the instruction set, but also the cortex-a architecture, ARM's instruction set and architecture, such as Samsung, MTK, Nvidia, and HiSilicon, Qualcomm's newest Dragon 810 is the eight core cortex-a57+cortex-a53.

Qualcomm Krait Architecture

Qualcomm (QUALCOMM) is a US-based radio communications technology research and Development company, he is best at the baseband communication, it is the advantage of the CPU, GPU and baseband in the mobile phone processor package together, Dragon also used arm's cortex architecture, since the Dragon 400, 600, 800, 801, 805 has been using krait architecture, but now the 810 seems to be back to arm cortex-a architecture bosom.

Qualcomm now has the highest market share, which is not surprisingly, holding a pile of communications patents in the performance and stability of the CPU should be the best, self-designed Adreno series GPU processor performance, integration is very high, research and development save time and effort, is expensive point.

Apple Swift&cyclone

Since IPhone4 began, the CPU began to play its own name, the first named A4, in fact, is a ARMv7 instruction set, CORTEX-A8 architecture design of the CPU, to IPhone5 A6 began to design their own swift architecture, With the armv7-a instruction set, performance is between CORTEX-A9 and Cortex-a15, and ARMV8, the first to use the 64-bit Cyclone architecture for A7, now has a more robust A8 processor, thanks to the second generation of excellent cyclone architecture design, Designed for iOS single-threaded optimization, even though the parameters are not beautiful, it achieves the desired performance and ensures low power consumption.

In addition to Qualcomm and Apple have their own architecture, such as Samsung, MTK, NVIDIA, etc. are taking arm off-the-shelf solution

Samsung Semiconductors

Samsung's CPU strength is not bad, the early Apple CPU is the use of Samsung, although there is no design instruction set and architecture technology, but it is more like a traditional semiconductor company, it has its own manufacturing plant, the design of its own manufacturing, but not the integration of Qualcomm so comprehensive, Due to the large number of Samsung mobile phone shipments are self-sufficient, and occasionally sell a portion to others.

Manufacturing process to be sure, Apple CPU has been Samsung OEM, is said to A8 processor orders by TSMC robbed, Exynos5430 is the world's first 20nm process processor, the next generation is expected to adopt 14nm technology, but Samsung processors currently do not have integrated mature baseband, GPS, WiFi and other modules, the development of high difficulty, which also makes some mobile phone manufacturers deterred.

Mtk

MTK is a chip in the field of a black horse (in fact, is not a black horse, only in recent years, high popularity), rich in the era of Shanzhai, but in recent years, continuous efforts, steady, gradually took out a lot of good products, but also gradually get rid of the impression of low-cost cottage.

MTK is a simple chip design company, it does not have a factory and its own intellectual property structure, but its chip integration after Qualcomm, integrated with baseband, ISP, GPS, WiFi and other power management modules, power control ideal, the most important or price is real.

MTK is an engineer thinking and the actual chip factory, propaganda and promotion to be strengthened, from the name of the product is also difficult to distinguish between the high and low end, recently took out the MT6595 once in the run points occupy Ngau Tau, no matter how, MTK is the only one to compete with the high-pass manufacturers bar.

Nvidia

Nvidia is good at graphics processing chips, in recent years only to participate in mobile phone CPU development and production, such as the Nvidia Tegra series, Tegra 4 is used in the Xiaomi 3 above, strong in the GPU, although good run, but the power is a problem, the latest Tegra 1 is also due to power consumption is too large, only applicable to the tablet.

Nvidia in the CPU is a later, since the launch of the Tegra 4 cell phone chip after more than a year, has not seen its new chip debut, whether it is a fleeting test of water is also elusive, it can be seen that the market does not have a certain technical precipitation, it is difficult to obtain the market, because there are good enough competitors, Powerful as Intel has not been able to quickly access the market, not to mention Nvidia.

HiSilicon

HiSilicon Semiconductor called the leader of the local chip, relying on Huawei in the mobile phone market share, can also be in the mobile phone processor market share, Kylin 928 performance is commendable, self-sufficiency is not tied to suppliers, is really a bit enviable.

Mobile CPU These things, it seems that Qualcomm is still a success, although the feeling of high above the people a bit uncomfortable; Samsung is a good seedling, is a bit of entertainment, and proud of the inferior, MTK from the low end to establish a foothold, whether it can complete the transformation, get more recognition? Apple is a skill, but does not eat human fireworks; Nvidia is struggling, HiSilicon in his own acres of three points can also live moist.

There are some familiar, now far away from the back: Texas Instruments, Marvel, STMicroelectronics ...

Qualcomm/Apple/MediaTek: Mobile CPU those things