First TSMC 6 nm EUV process
As we all know, Tianji 1000 series introduced by MediaTek in 20 19 was manufactured based on TSMC's 7nm process, while Tianji1200/100 adopted TSMC's 6nm EUV process for the first time.
According to TSMC's data, compared with the 7nm process, its 6nm EUV process improves the transistor density by 18%, which also means that its performance is improved by about 18%, or the core area can be reduced by 18% while keeping the number of transistors unchanged, thus further reducing power consumption and cost. According to TSMC's data, the power consumption of 6 nm EUV process can be reduced by 8% compared with 7 nm under the same performance conditions.
Of course, compared with the 5nm EUV process mass-produced by TSMC, the 6nm EUV process is slightly inferior in performance and power consumption, but the gap is not big and it has a cost advantage. According to industry sources, Tianqi's next-generation flagship will also adopt TSMC's 5nm process.
3.0GHz Cortex-A78 Super Core
In order to hit the high-end flagship market, MediaTek began to build a brand-new flagship processor from the previous generation of Tianji 1000 series. Therefore, MediaTek has greatly improved the performance of the CPU and GPU of Tianji 1000 series. Not only did it directly adopt four Arm Cortex-A77 cores and four Cortex-A55 configurations, but it also made Tianji 1000 series the first quad-core chip based on Cortex-A77 in the world at that time, and the CPU was far superior to competing products. At the same time, Tianji 1000 also launched Arm's latest Mali-G77 GPU in the world, which integrated nine cores, making Tianji 1000 series far superior to competitors in GPU performance.
Similarly, MediaTek's brand-new secret1200/100 has greatly improved the performance of CPU and GPU.
Tianji 1200 adopts 1 3 4 flagship three-beam architecture design on the CPU core architecture, including 1 Arm Cortex-A78 super core, with the main frequency as high as 3.0GHz, further improving the single-core performance.
The data shows that compared with the previous generation Cortex-A77, the architecture performance of Cortex-A78 is improved by 7%, the power consumption is reduced by 4%, the core is reduced by 5%, and the quad-core cluster area is reduced by 15%. Cortex-A78 itself focuses on the balance of performance, power consumption and area, which helps to improve the endurance of 5G mobile phones. Although it seems that the performance improvement is not great, it will be further amplified with the blessing of the previous process.
According to the data released by MediaTek, the cold start speed of Tianji 1200 is 9% to 25% higher than that of Shang You flagship in many applications with the support of 3.0GHz super-large core.
As for why we don't use Cortex-X 1, the most powerful kernel in Arm, I guess MediaTek may also be more concerned about the power consumption of 5G mobile phones. For example, the recently listed flagship processor based on Arm Cortex-X 1 Very Large Core has been exposed to the problem of power consumption "rollover".
In addition to the 3GHz Cortex-A78 super core, Tianji 1200 has three 2.6GHz Cortex-A78 cores and four 2.0GHz A55 small cores.
According to the data released by MediaTek, the CPU comprehensive performance of Tianji 1200 is 22% higher than that of previous generation Tianji 1000, and the energy efficiency is 25% higher.
GPU configuration, the cat 1200 is consistent with the previous generation cat 1000 series, and it is still Mali-G77 MC9. Although the configuration has not changed, with the support of 6nm EUV process, the frequency has been improved. According to official data, the GPU performance of Tianji 1200 is 13% higher than that of the previous generation.
The 5G network experience has been further enhanced.
As one of the few suppliers of 5G chips in the world, MediaTek is also very strong in communication technology.
Tianji 1000, which went on the market at the end of 20 19, won many firsts in the performance of 5G: the world's first 5G single chip supporting the polymerization of 5G dual-carrier aggregation, or the world's fastest 5G single chip (downlink peak rate can reach 4.7Gbps, uplink peak rate can reach 2.5Gbps), the world's first 5G single chip supporting 5G dual card dual standby, and the world's first 5G integrated with Wi-Fi 6.
According to Li Yanji, deputy general manager of MediaTek Wireless Communication Division, the released Tianji 1200 has also maintained a continuous leading position in 5G, supporting independent (SA) and non-independent (NSA) networking modes, and saving electricity in all frequency bands (including the new global 5G band) with 5G dual-carrier aggregation aggregation (2CC CA), Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) and MediaTek 5G UltraSave.
According to the measured data provided by MediaTek, in densely populated urban areas and suburbs, the decline rate is more than twice as fast as that of competing flagship, and 25% faster than that of competing flagship in urban areas.
In addition, in order to create a panoramic full-time seamless 5G connection experience, MediaTek Tianji 1200 supports 5G high-speed rail mode (which can stabilize the downlink rate above 400Mbps), 5G elevator mode and other application modes.
Through intelligent scene awareness, fast signal capture and tracking, intelligent network search and network parking, the terminal has efficient and stable 5G performance, and combined with MediaTek's 5G UltraSave power-saving technology, it brings lower power consumption of 5G communication.
According to the data released by MediaTek, the 5G baseband of Tianji 1200 is 40% and 35% lower in light load power consumption than that of Shang You flagship and 46% and 43% lower in heavy load power consumption than that of Shang You flagship in SA and n SA modes.
6-core APU 3.0 blessing, strengthening AI multimedia experience
In recent years, the AI performance of mobile processors has been the focus of mobile processor manufacturers. MediaTek has made great efforts in this field for a long time, and achieved good results.
As early as 20 18, MediaTek took the lead in integrating APU (artificial intelligence processing unit) 1.0 into its Helio P60 chip, which enhanced the AI performance of the chip, and then this chip was quickly successful in the market.
After tasting the sweetness, MediaTek continued to increase the price and further upgraded to APU 2.0 on Helio P90 released at the end of 20 18. At that time, MediaTek also successfully sent Helio P90 to the first place in the AI benchmark test of Zurich Institute of Technology with APU 2.0.
Similarly, at the end of 20 19, MediaTek's brand-new flagship mobile chip Tianji 1000 series APU was further upgraded to APU version 3.0, adopting a multi-core architecture with two cores, three small cores and 1 micronucleus for the first time, with performance 2.5 times that of the previous APU 3.0 and energy efficiency increased by 40%. With the improvement of AI performance brought by APU 3.0, MediaTek Tianji 1000 also topped the AI benchmark list again.
Of course, the running score of AI is only a reflection of the performance of AI hardware, and more importantly, how to use the performance of AI hardware to bring more practical experience improvement to users. In this regard, users pay more and more attention to multimedia effects such as taking photos and videos of mobile phones, which naturally becomes the focus of AI efforts.
Although MediaTek released Tianji 1200, it also adopted APU3.0, but thanks to the blessing of 6nm EUV process and the optimization of software and hardware, the energy efficiency of Tianji 1200 was improved again compared with the previous generation Tianji 1000 series, which further released AI's multimedia capabilities.
According to the data released by MediaTek, the APU performance of Tianji 1200 is 45% and 90% higher than that of Shang You flagship in various tests.
In terms of taking pictures, the cat 1200 can support up to 200 million pixels to take pictures; In terms of video recording, Tianji 1200 can support AV 1 video coding format and the leading chip-level single-frame progressive 4K HDR video technology (staggered HDR), that is, when users record 4K video, each frame can be exposed and fused three times, which makes the video quality have excellent dynamic range, and the color, contrast and details are significantly improved.
So what help can Tianqi 1200' s APU 3.0 bring to taking photos and videos?
MediaTek said that APU 3.0 can give full play to the advantages of mixed precision, flexibly use integer precision and floating-point precision operations, and achieve higher energy efficiency in AI applications.
For example, in terms of taking photos, MediaTek also joined hands with ArcSoft's AI algorithm and combined with MediaTek's APU multi-task scheduling mechanism to bring users new photography experiences such as "fast night shooting" and "super panoramic night shooting" through the high integration of AI technologies such as AI noise reduction, AI exposure and AI object tracking;
Comparison of real shooting effect
In addition, MediaTek, together with SenseTech, can also achieve mobile video shooting special effects such as multi-person background replacement and multi-person removal through AI multi-person real-time segmentation technology.
MediaTek also brought AI video technologies such as AI multi-player blur, multi-depth smart focus and AI streaming media image quality enhancement, which brought more innovation possibilities for vlog creation and live broadcast.
In addition, combined with the HDR 10 video coding technology and AI-SDR technology of Tianji 1200, staggered HDR video effects can be completely output, bringing users a more amazing end-to-end multi-screen HDR experience.
HyperEngine 3.0 makes the game more enjoyable.
In recent years, with the popularity of smart phones and 4G mobile networks, the development of online multiplayer mobile games has been greatly promoted. The data also shows that there are currently more than 2.2 billion mobile game users worldwide, which shows the great market potential. Especially with the popularity of the glory of the king and various "eat chicken" mobile games, users pay more and more attention to the game performance and experience of mobile phones. Many mobile phone manufacturers have entered the game mobile phone market, such as Black Shark, Nubian Red Devils and Asus. , have launched a special game phone.
In this context, at the end of July, 2065438+2009, MediaTek also launched its first mobile phone chip-Helio G90t, which cooperated with the chip-level game optimization engine technology HyperEngine, including network optimization engine, intelligent load control engine, control optimization engine and image quality optimization engine to improve the game experience in all directions.
Subsequently, MediaTek introduced HyperEngine into the series of Tianji 1000, and further upgraded to the latest version of HyperEngine 2.0. The game optimization engine of Tianji 1200 launched this time has been upgraded to the latest HyperEngine 3.0 again, bringing industry-leading innovation technology in four core features: network optimization engine, control optimization engine, intelligent load adjustment engine and image quality optimization engine.
For example, in terms of network optimization, the mobile phone equipped with Tianji 1200 can realize the dual-card parallelism of game calls under the connection of 5G network, and users can play mobile games with the main card while answering calls from the auxiliary card, and the game will continue uninterrupted.
The newly launched super hot spot and high-speed rail game mode can optimize the network for different game environments and effectively reduce the delay and congestion of the game network.
At the same time, Tianji 1200 also obtained the TUV high-performance game networking certification in Rheinland, Germany, and passed the test items of 6 dimensions and 72 scenes, completely covering the whole scene networking game experience. Tianji 1200 is also the world's first mobile phone chip that has passed the TUV rheingau performance game network connection certification.
In terms of control optimization, the control engine of HyperEngine 3.0 can keep the click rate of multi-finger touch time stable and high-frame operation for the high-frame images preferred by mobile game users at present.
In addition, Tianji 1200 is the first to support the Bluetooth low energy audio standard. Compared with the traditional TWS true wireless Bluetooth headset, it can be extended to dual-channel streaming audio. Combined with the optimization of MediaTek, the terminal and TWS headset can get lower delay and prolong the service life of the headset.
In terms of image quality optimization, the image quality optimization engine of HyperEngine 3.0 can realize HDR+ level image quality optimization with zero power consumption burden. At the same time, MediaTek also laid out the key technology of graphics-ray tracing, bringing the end-game rendering technology to mobile terminals, providing powerful graphics processing capabilities for game manufacturers, developers and terminals, bringing real game pictures to mobile gamers and leading the trend of mobile graphics technology.
In terms of load regulation, HyperEngine 3.0' s intelligent load regulation engine adds game high brush power saving (which can save electricity 12%), intelligent healthy charging (which can effectively control temperature and cool down 3) and Wi-Fi 6 power saving mode (which can save electricity up to 28mA), aiming at balancing performance and power consumption and prolonging battery life.
There is also a low-grade version of cat 1 100.
It is worth mentioning that apart from Tianji 1200, MediaTek also introduced a low-grade version of Tianji 1 100. The main difference is that the 3.0GHz super-large core is cancelled and changed to 2.6GHz quad-core A78A A78 A78 2.0GHz quad-core A55. In addition, the main frequency of GPU is slightly lower, and the maximum camera support is 60 GHz. In addition, the cat 1 100 only supports the screen refresh rate of FHD 144Hz, while the cat 1200 can support FHD 168Hz.
Although MediaTek Tianji 1000 directly targeted at Snapdragon 855 series, Qualcomm's flagship platform, and all the indicators were better than the competitors at that time, MediaTek's past 4G chips were mostly used in low-end models, lacking brand support in the high-end flagship mobile phone market, and the mobile phones using Tianji 1000 were not released in time, which once made people doubt its 5G market capability. MediaTek quickly adjusted its strategy, and in May 2020, it launched a brand-new secret 1000. Although the hardware parameters have not changed, the software has been fully upgraded, further enhancing its competitiveness as the flagship platform of 5G.
Subsequently, Tianji 1000 was quickly adopted by many products, such as iQOO Z 1, realme X7 Pro, Redmi K30 speed commemorative edition, OPPO Reno5 Pro and so on. And the glory V40, which will be released soon, also adopts the secret 1000.
It is particularly worth mentioning that in the previous OPPO Reno3 series, Reno3 was equipped with Tianji 1000L, and the price started from 3399 yuan; Renault 3 Pro is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, starting at 3999 yuan. The OPPO Reno5 released not long ago is equipped with Snapdragon 765G, starting from 2699 yuan; Reno5 Pro is equipped with 1000, starting from 3399 yuan.
It can be seen that the product positioning difference of OPPO between Tianji 1000 series and Snapdragon 765 has changed in Reno5 series. This also seems to reflect OPPO's recognition of the flagship positioning of Tianji 1000 series.
Thanks to the success of Tianji series, according to the data released by Dr. Xu Jingquan, Vice President of MediaTek and General Manager of Wireless Division, the shipment of mobile phone chips in the third quarter of 2020 has become the first in the world. By the end of last year, the shipment of Tianji's 5G mobile platform had exceeded 45 million sets, which helped MediaTek become the world's largest manufacturer of 5G smart phone chips.
After Tianji 1000 successfully entered the high-end market last year, the more powerful Tianji 1200 launched by MediaTek is expected to further stabilize the high-end market.
Since last year, influenced by the continuous suppression of Huawei by the United States, domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo have to pay more attention to supply chain security, and began to change the situation that mid-to high-end product lines rely too much on Qualcomm chips. MediaTek's cat series has naturally become a good choice.
Especially in recent days, the United States has also included Xiaomi Company in the list of enterprises owned or controlled by China's military (MEU list). Although at present, Xiaomi's continued purchase of mobile phone chips from Qualcomm may not be affected, it will force Xiaomi to find ways to reduce its dependence on American components in order to cope with more serious sanctions from the United States in the future. At the same time, Xiaomi's inclusion in the EMU list in the United States will inevitably aggravate the concerns of other China mobile phone manufacturers, such as OPPO and vivo, and force them to take corresponding measures in advance to cope with possible risks.
Therefore, in this context, from the perspective of strengthening supply chain security, domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo will inevitably further reduce their dependence on American components. This also means that Qualcomm, the dominant player in the mid-to high-end mobile phone chip market, will be directly affected, while MediaTek, another mobile phone chip manufacturer, will benefit from it.
In addition, from the perspective of market competition, domestic manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo have limited Kirin chip manufacturing and limited procurement of third-party 5G chips. In order to gain more market share of Huawei mobile phones, they must provide more differentiated and competitive product portfolios. Especially in the high-end flagship mobile phone market, only Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 and Tianji 1200 can be selected as flagship 5G chips at present. If domestic mobile phone manufacturers want to reduce their dependence on Qualcomm, then Tianji 1200 will naturally become the first choice.
Although Snapdragon 888 based on Samsung's 5nm technology and Cortex-X 1 super core is indeed slightly higher than Tianji 1200 in chip specifications and parameters, according to the current market feedback, Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 has a "rollover" phenomenon in power consumption, and it will have a frequency reduction problem when running large-scale games, and its performance will drop to the level equivalent to that of the previous generation Snapdragon 865. The outside world questioned that Samsung's 5nm process may not even be as good as TSMC's 7nm.
Therefore, when the power consumption of Snapdragon 888 is overturned, it is undoubtedly an opportunity for MediaTek Tianji 1200 based on TSMC's 6nm process to seize the high-end market.
It is worth noting that the current wafer foundry capacity continues to fall short of demand, and many chips have problems. For mobile phone brand manufacturers, whether mobile phone chips can maintain sufficient and stable supply is also the key to compete for market share.
According to SMIC, a large part of the power management IC required for the shipment of Qualcomm Snapdragon series chips is delivered by SMIC's 8-inch factory production line. According to industry analysis, Qualcomm orders at least 600,000 power management IC chips from SMIC every year, accounting for almost 40% of Qualcomm's own supply. However, in June 5438+February last year, the United States listed SMIC as an entity. Although SMIC indicates that it will not have a significant adverse impact on the mature process, the company's operation and financial situation in the short term, if the equipment and parts required for the mature process are not licensed for a long time, the mature process may also be affected, which will also affect the supply of power management IC in Qualcomm.
A few months ago, Qualcomm began to actively transfer orders to the outside world. However, due to the full capacity of other wafer foundries, it didn't come out until June+February in 5438 last year, and UMC accepted the order from Qualcomm Power Management IC. However, UMC's 8-inch capacity itself is saturated, so it may be difficult for Qualcomm to obtain sufficient capacity. Moreover, the power management IC required by 5G mobile phones is greatly increased compared with that of 4G mobile phones, so the capacity of power management IC required by Qualcomm is also greatly increased compared with the past.
Therefore, from the perspective of supply, there may be a problem of insufficient supply of power management IC in Qualcomm in the future, resulting in limited shipment of Opteron processors. In contrast, MediaTek's 5G power management chips are mainly manufactured by UMC. In order to cope with the possible capacity shortage of power management IC, MediaTek has been looking for other suppliers for a long time. At the end of last year, it was reported in the industry that MediaTek obtained a large amount of wafer production capacity of 12 inch power management IC.
For this year's 5G market, Dr. Xu Jingquan, Vice President of MediaTek and General Manager of Wireless Division, said that more than 200 operators around the world will provide 5G services this year, and it is estimated that 500 million mobile phones will be shipped. Therefore, MediaTek is also very optimistic about the market performance of this year's cat series 5G chips.
According to media reports in Taiwan Province Province, orders for 5G mobile phone chips in MediaTek have increased substantially, benefiting from the large increase in orders from mainland mobile phone manufacturers such as OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi. In order to ensure the supply, it is reported that MediaTek expanded its investment in TSMC's 7nm and 6nm thin films in the first quarter of this year, and it is estimated that the investment in TSMC's 7nm and 6nm thin films will reach 1 1 10,000 in the first quarter. According to this estimation, it is estimated that the shipment of MediaTek Tianji series 5G chips will reach 800.9 million sets in the first half of 2002 1.6 1.8 times of the annual shipment in 2020.
On the whole, MediaTek's Tianji 1200 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 888/865 have occupied the advantages of favorable conditions and favorable people in the high-end smart phone market competition (Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 power consumption overturned, the United States continues to restrict the supply of American products and technologies to some China enterprises, and MediaTek's supply guarantee has been completed). Next, it depends on the terminal performance of Xiaomi, vivo, OPPO and Realme, which are mobile phone manufacturers on the MediaTek platform in turn.
It is worth noting that at the press conference, Lu, president of Xiaomi Group, president of China District and general manager of Redmi brand, said that Redmi will launch a new platform for the flagship core of Tianji. In addition, Realme executives also said that Realme will be the first mobile phone brand based on the new flagship of Apocalypse.