The fact that Oppo is reportedly working on an in-house mobile is no more a secret. The smartphone maker introduced its NPU chipset last year and now it is being reported that Oppo’s application processor might be introduced next year.
It’s being reported that this mobile AP is being produced on the 6NM manufacturing process by TSMC and by 2024 the company plans to introduce a mobile SoC produced using TSMC’s 4nm process. Oppo’s IC design subsidiary Shanghai Zheku is said to be assigned for this task.
The report corroborates a similar previous report hinting at this development by the Chinese phone maker. Oppo was reportedly hiring AI experts and chip developers from Qualcomm, Huawei, and MediaTek.
If this goes as planned, Oppo not only will get a distinct advantage over the other Chinese phone makers but will also be among the select few phone makers including – Apple, Samsung and Google that have their in-house SoC.
A couple of Chinese smartphone makers like Huawei and Xiaomi also have developed their SoC. Huawei’s Kirin chipsets were seen in most phones launched by the company, however, post the US clampdown the HiSilicon chipsets have also been limited. Xiaomi’s Surge C1 is also an Image Signal Processor – similar to Oppo’s MariSilicon X.
Though the latest report doesn’t reveal anything in detail in terms of configuration etc of the mobile chipset, it is certainly seen as a way to limit Oppo’s dependency on chipset makers like Qualcomm, MediaTek etc.
Long way to go yet
An in-house chipset offers the brand to optimize the phone’s performance to offer the best hardware and software. Apple has already set the benchmarks high in terms of offering the best to the end-users.
We’ve seen a glimpse of a similar experience from Google – though since the SoC is in its first generation – we will have to wait for a couple of iterations before it is termed as a successful venture.
On the other hand, while Samsung has been making and using its own chipsets for some time, they are far from perfect. The performance of most Exynos SoCs falls way short of what the competition has to offer.
Additionally, the ongoing chipset crunch has impacted the brands like Apple and Google alike – while smartphone makers that are using Snapdragon or MediaTek chipsets have largely remained unphased.
Making a chipset is just a part of the story and is not a guarantee of success. It all depends on the smartphone maker how well they are able to optimize the performance.
Via XDADevelopers
