Out of Sohu Technology
Edit | Yang Jin
Self-developed chip has become the next technology high ground for cell phone manufacturers to compete. on December 14th, OPPO's first self-developed chip - Mariana MariSilicon X, which has been rumored for a long time, has been formally unveiled. It is understood that this chip adopts 6nm advanced process, the first landing commercial terminal for OPPO's next-generation flagship Find X, which is expected to be mass-produced in the first quarter of 2022.
Mariana X is an image-specific NPU chip, the core IP is all self-research, and its AI algorithms run at an unprecedented level, and the SoC together constitute the left and right brains of the core computing of the phone. So far, OPPO has made up the last piece of the image computing puzzle, and entered the era of one machine with two cores.
Core IP self-research, to improve low-light video image quality
Although late, but in terms of process specifications and performance, OPPO's this chip is not inferior to other flagship brands.OPPO Mariana X adopts the advanced 6nm process, due to the market does not have any reference design of independent 6nm NPU. Mariana X is OPPO's own research from the architectural design, core IP design, logic design to the physical design.
According to the introduction, Mariana X adopts the DSA architecture, that is, directed assembly technology. Currently, cutting-edge technology companies around the world are using DSA for AI, such as Google's Tensor, because DSA's AI chips outperform GPUs.
In general, AI computing power is usually expressed in terms of TOPS, with 1TOPS representing one trillion operations per second for the processor. According to the official presentation, the Mariana X AI arithmetic reaches 18 TOPS, surpassing Apple's A15 chip. The energy efficiency is 11.6TOPS/W, running the OPPO AI noise reduction model up to 20 times faster than the Find X3 Pro (Snapdragon 888) and 40 times more energy efficient.
However, the use of the DSA architecture also means that this chip is specialized, for the manufacturer's pre chip direction planning requirements are extremely high, to pre-judge the chip in the development to commercialization of a few years, the image of the wind mouth where exactly, set the precise direction of the user's needs.
In fact, the major manufacturers in the current mobile photography competition has long been over the pile of sensors, the pursuit of large bottom, high pixel count and other parameters of the crude arms race stage, compared to the configuration of the refinement of the insight into user needs is more important.
The popularity of short video platforms tells us that video has become the new anchor point for mobile image competition. On this chip, OPPO hopes to solve the problem of low light video quality. Poor night video image quality due to insufficient arithmetic power of traditional ISPs and general-purpose processors, as well as the loss of information in the traditional image link, has been a major problem for traditional cell phone imaging. Mariana X is equipped with powerful arithmetic, energy efficiency and computational speed, allowing AI algorithms to run at unprecedented speeds.
Mariana X has achieved four major technological breakthroughs, reaching a level of superb arithmetic power and lossless transmission on user-focused scenes with a high coefficient of difficulty such as face and night video, as well as integrating and evolving the capabilities of image processing under the video streaming trend, pushing computational imaging to a new limit of 4K + 20bit RAW + AI + Ultra HDR.
Why are phone makers so keen to go to great lengths to develop their own chips?
Self-developed chips are a high-investment, high-risk affair. The cost of a single stream can be as high as hundreds of millions of dollars, and no one knows if it will succeed before the formal streaming experiment, and once it fails, it is faced with the prospect of having to start all over again, and the investment in financial and human resources goes down the drain.
Nevertheless, the strength of the manufacturers are still on the chip self-research is not forgotten. This is because, on the brand, the level of high-performance self-developed chip will be a powerful way to pull up the product premium, to enhance the brand's scientific and technological power. At the same time, compared with the use of third-party brands of generic chips, self-developed chips can also enhance the differentiation advantage of the product. This year, the domestic head of the cell phone manufacturers have increased their own chip, on the one hand, to better realize the key technology independent control, on the other hand, also for the strength of the high-end machine market to prepare.
Only self-research, in order to maximize the combination of the advantages of their own products, for cell phones and use of the scene to do targeted and in-depth tuning, while the product is also more controllable. Therefore, OPPO to image as the first self-developed chip entry point, and its cell phone main image gene has a strong combination.
It is understood that OPPO began to do chip self-research from 2019, the existing chip team of more than 2,000 people, although the official has not yet disclosed the investment in research and development funds, but at the end of 2019 on the future of science and technology conference, the founder and CEO of OPPO, Chen Mingyong, has announced that "the next three years will be invested in the research and development of 50 billion yuan to build a technology moat".
Last year, OPPO released an internal article "some thoughts on building core technology" article, mentioned three major programs, involving software development and support for global developers "Pantanal program", to build cloud services "Amazon program
The image chip is just the first step, the release of the Marianas X, the image of the special NPU chip is OPPO to test their own technical capabilities and strength of the product, is the current stage of the exercise and the results of the water test, with this step, OPPO can become a Huawei, Apple, as the same as the company has its own research technology.
How the real performance of Mariana X, perhaps also have to wait until the first quarter of next year in the OPPO new generation of Find X run up to see the difference. In any case, the launch of the first NPU chip Mariana X, heralding OPPO in the hard science and technology further, and high R & D investment as well as high investment in strong technological breakthroughs will eventually feed the brand's scientific and technological power, boosting OPPO to further impact the high-end flagship market.