Who are you more optimistic about, Huawei, Qualcomm and Intel？

Reporter Ni Yuqing reports from Shenzhen

The pace of 5G commercialization is getting closer and closer, and the terminal that first presents its power is the smart phone. However, for ordinary users, 5G is only faster than 4G. Mobile phone manufacturers directly sell 5G mobile phones, and users can buy new mobile phone tariff packages from operators. But the concrete application of all this is only the last step. Now, Intel, Qualcomm, Huawei and other manufacturers are fighting for the camp in the industrial chain.

Since the end of 2017, chip manufacturers have rushed to run away from 5G chips. Qualcomm, Intel, Huawei and MediaTek have released 5G baseband chips with 3GPP standards, and terminals equipped with these chips are expected to be available in 2019. Among them, terminals include 5G mobile phones of Huawei, OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi and other brands, as well as PCs and commercial equipment.

The chips in the mobile phone mainly include RF chips, baseband modems and core application processors. Among them, the main manufacturers of RF chips are Skyworks, Qorvo, TriQuint, etc. The core application processor is the most common CPU and GPU, such as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon series. At present, no manufacturer in this field can shake Qualcomm’s position; The key manufacturers of baseband modems include Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung, Hisilicon and Spreadtrum.

However, the gradual release of modems does not mean that the 5G picture has been fully realized. Wu Geng, an academician of Intel and the chief technical expert of Intel wireless technology and standards, told the 21st century business herald reporter: "In fact, 5G is only a starting point to improve the overall level of new generation technology, not an end point."

5G baseband chip "competition"

The main scene of 5G communication is still the mobile phone. Although the planning prospect of IoT is very huge and worth looking forward to, the large-scale application that really landed first must be the mobile phone terminal. Among them, the chip is the key to the smart phone terminal.

The global pattern of mobile phone chips is very clear. At present, the United States is in an unshakable position in core chips such as processors, and the representative enterprises are Qualcomm, Intel and Apple. South Korea is unique in storage and has a strong market share, such as Samsung and Hynix. Europe has core technologies in the chip upstream industry, such as ASML in the Netherlands. Relying on the advantages of industrial subduction zone, Taiwan Province has more than second-rate chip and industrial chain enterprises in the world, such as MediaTek and TSMC.

Now the mainland has also made achievements in processors, such as Huawei’s Hisilicon Kirin series; Spreadtrum’s market share in baseband chips is also in the top five in the world. However, the mainland’s technical level is still third-rate in the world by integrating RF chips, memory chips, core processors and baseband chips. However, it is worth grasping the opportunity that China attaches great importance to the 5G standard, and it is bound to be the largest market for the application of 5G technology. The application scenarios in major cities and regions are the most complex and have the most industrial value.

The chips in mobile phones mainly include memory chips and various processors, among which the processors mainly include RF chips, baseband modems and core application processors. At present, the market scale of RF chips is about 20 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to the market scale of baseband chips, while the scale of the whole storage chip, including all kinds of storage markets, is about 80 billion US dollars, which shows that the potential of the RF chip market cannot be underestimated. Judging from the current market share, RF chips are mainly controlled by European and American manufacturers. For example, the BAW filter market in RF chips is mainly controlled by Avago and Qorvo, accounting for almost 95% of the market share. In the terminal power amplifier market, Skyworks, Qorvo and Murata mainly occupy the market.

However, the 5G chips released by Intel, Qualcomm, Huawei and MediaTek are all baseband chips. In October 2017, Qualcomm released the first 5G modem Snapdragon X50 supporting 28GHz millimeter wave, which only supports 28GHz millimeter wave; Then in November, Intel also released its first 5G modem XMM8060, which not only supports 28GHz millimeter wave, but also supports sub-6GHz low frequency band. In February 2018, Huawei released Baron 5G01 and the first 3GPP standard 5G commercial terminal CPE based on this chip. Baron 5G01 supports Sub-6GHz and millimeter wave like Intel chips. However, Huawei plans to launch the 5G chip on the mobile side in 2019; MediaTek, a latecomer, launched the first 5G baseband chip M70 in June 2018.

Technical difficulties remain.

However, in the process of chip mass production, there are still many problems. Yao Jiayang said that there are five key technical difficulties in mass production of 5G chips. The first is that it must be backward compatible with 3 G/4 G; The second is the breadth of spectrum support; The third is whether the mastery of millimeter wave technology (above 28GHz) is high enough; The fourth is whether the built-in DSP capability of 5G baseband chip is enough to support a larger amount of data operation; The fifth is the size and power performance of the chip itself (including whether the operation efficiency is enough, which will also involve the heat dissipation of the system design).

Zou Ning, director of communication technology policy and standards in China, Intel, told 21st century business herald: "The standard of 5G is very complicated. Now there are many modules, and there have been six modules in the past. In addition, 5GNR is 7 modules, the chip design complexity will be very high, which is a great challenge. In addition, many supported frequency bands, because we, as a terminal chip manufacturer, want to launch a universal chip that needs to be supported in all regions of the world, need to support the frequency points of different countries and regions, including low frequency, intermediate frequency, 3.5GHz, 4.9GHz China band, and also high frequency, such as 28GHz and 39GHz in the United States, South Korea and Japan. It is also complicated in terms of frequency band support. Between different modes, various switches should be made between frequency bands. "

In addition, Wu Geng added: "There is also carrier aggregation, which has a huge overall number. Our wireless front-end needs to be arranged and combined to support all possibilities."

In addition to strengthening their own technical capabilities, we can see that manufacturers are constantly increasing their allies. For example, Intel and Unisplendour jointly launched the 5G strategy in February this year. The two parties cooperated to target high-end 5G mobile phone chips, and jointly developed a brand-new 5G smart phone platform equipped with Intel 5G modems for the China market, and planned to launch it to the market in synchronization with the deployment of 5G mobile networks in 2019. Lianfa Technology recently invested in Jaguar Radio, and the two sides cooperated to develop technologies and products related to 5G and millimeter wave. Qualcomm signed early subscription agreements with mobile phone manufacturers such as OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi. Recently, Huawei and China Unicom signed a 5G strategic cooperation.

So, which manufacturer will win in the fierce commercial sprint stage? Yao Jiayang, an analyst at Tuopu Industrial Research Institute, told 21st century business herald: "Huawei has launched CPE version in the field of 5G chips, but it still lags behind Qualcomm and Intel in mobile chips. However, due to Huawei’s considerable voice in the 3GPP field and its positive attitude in formulating the 5G standard, we believe that Huawei should have the opportunity to catch up with Intel and Qualcomm during 2019-2020, even though it is lagging behind in the field of 5G mobile chips. As for Intel, it has already entered the Apple supply chain in 4GLTE chips, and notebook manufacturers are also interested in carrying 5G chips, so Intel can take advantage of its advantages in the notebook industry to get stuck. In addition to the existing solutions of 5G baseband chips, Qualcomm also has a fairly complete layout in the analog front end, such as antennas, amplifiers and filters. Therefore, Qualcomm has further launched a module solution for 5G mobile products, and there are no competitors in the short term. "

At the same time, he also said: "Considering that the OEM and ODM manufacturers of terminal systems may not be willing to be limited by a single supplier, although Qualcomm will be the primary supplier, other competitors such as Intel still have many opportunities in the 5G market."