Why are Qualcomm processors so popular in China? Is there a better processor vendor than Qualcomm?

Qualcomm's advantage is that the technology is strong, the independent KRAIT architecture performance is very strong, Qualcomm CPU has a high degree of integration, a chip combines a communication module with powerful multi-** functions, 3D graphics functions and GPS engine, and Qualcomm has many patents in communication technology, relatively monopolistic, Qualcomm CPU market share has more than 50%, especially in the high-end machine market, almost all Qualcomm CPUs, because software developers will give priority to Qualcomm CPU optimization, This results in the high compatibility of Qualcomm CPUs, and Qualcomm's shortcomings should be high power consumption and high heating, but high-performance CPUs are like this.

As for HiSilicon's CPU, there are only K3V2, K910 and K920 at present, K3V2 will not be discussed, garbage CPU, mainly the current K920, HiSilicon's CPU design is okay, CPU integrates GPU and baseband chip, and also integrates audio processor, ** core, ISP, which is a bit similar to Qualcomm's, can reach Qualcomm 800 in many aspects, GPU is Mali-T628, performance is relatively strong, HiSilicon's processor has a high degree of integration, because Huawei has strong technology in communication modules, and the disadvantage can be said that Huawei started late, and it is far inferior to Qualcomm in terms of technology, and the product development cycle is long, and HiSilicon is currently only used by Huawei, and software developers will not optimize for HiSilicon's CPU, which cannot reach Qualcomm's compatibility, but it is still using Mali in Huawei, so the compatibility problem will not be too big.

Huawei's Kirin processor will also work.

Qualcomm's several generations of processors have been overturned continuously, and they have been dubbed "Fire Dragon" by users since the Snapdragon 888. When it comes to Snapdragon 888+, I thought that Qualcomm Snapdragon would pay attention to its high power consumption and high heat generation problems at the end of last year and improve them. As a result, everyone was waiting for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1's greater power consumption and more serious heating.

Now many users have lost confidence in Qualcomm's processor, and bluntly said that Qualcomm's processor is because there is no competition, so it began to rot, and every update is a high-paste upgrade. It is also said that it is because Qualcomm's own design ability is getting worse and worse. The reason why Qualcomm's processors have become worse and worse in recent generations is a comprehensive problem, and it is not as simple as netizens imagined.

Qualcomm's processors lack competitive pressure, and this statement is not too much of a problem. Everyone knows that there are only a few kinds of mobile phone chips on the market, and the best imitation Apple A series chips are only for Apple's own use, and will not compete with Qualcomm Snapdragon for customers. Huawei's Kirin chips have been restricted in the past two years, and even Huawei itself has to use Qualcomm's chips, let alone compete with Qualcomm.

The rest of MediaTek only made low-end chips in the past few years, and only launched the first high-end chip Dimensity 9000 at the end of last year, but for the sake of safety, most of the major mobile phone manufacturers still choose Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 for the new generation of flagship mobile phones. It can be said that Qualcomm Snapdragon has had a smooth ride in recent years, and there is basically no competitive pressure, so it is reasonable to have a certain amount of laxity in the upgrading of products.

As for Qualcomm's design ability, I think there is no problem with small rent, on the contrary, Qualcomm's design ability has always been **. The poor power consumption of Snapdragon chips is not due to poor design capabilities, but is directly related to the foundry process. Everyone knows that only Samsung and TSMC can be used for high-end chip foundry at present, but Samsung's process is notoriously poor, as for why Qualcomm insisted on choosing Samsung with a worse process instead of TSMC in the past two years, Xiaoren admits that it is not unrelated to Qualcomm's desire to reduce costs through Samsung foundry and support Samsung by the way.

With the launch of the Snapdragon 8gen 1 processor at the end of last year, the reputation of Qualcomm chips has fallen to the bottom, Qualcomm is not indifferent to users' evaluation of Snapdragon chips, it was too late to reverse it at that time, and it was too late to find a second supply plan, that is, the TSMC version. With MediaTek's entry into the field of high-end mobile phone chips, the competition for high-end chips should become more and more fierce in the future.

It is said that the TSMC version of the Snapdragon 8gen 1 will be launched in the first half of this year, and the power consumption will be much stronger than the Samsung version. At that time, if you have friends who want to experience it, you can rent a car for free on the "Everyone Rent", only a few dollars a day, and you can rent and return at any time!

The best processors for Snapdragon at the moment are the Snapdragon 8 Gen1+ and Snapdragon 8 Gen2.

1. Snapdragon 8gen1+

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is built with an octa-core Kryo CPU, which includes one Cortex-X2-based core, three Cortex-A710-based high-performance cores, and four Cortex-A510-based high-efficiency cores. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip's process technology has been upgraded from Samsung's 5nm process technology for the Snapdragon 888 to Samsung's 4nm process technology.

2. Snapdragon 8 Gen2

As a new generation of Snapdragon 8 series mobile phone processors, Snapdragon 8 Gen2 has changed Qualcomm's iconic eight-core three-cluster architecture in recent years, and adopts a new four-cluster architecture design for the first time, consisting of a combination of one Cortex X3 super core + two A720 performance cores + two A710 large cores + three A510 energy efficiency cores. Judging from the evaluation scores, the CPU multi-core performance and GPU performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen2 are almost on par with the A16, better than the A15, and slightly lower than the Apple A15 in CPU single-core performance, which is currently the strongest Android mobile phone processor.

The future of Snapdragon processors

With the advent of 5G technology, Qualcomm Snapdragon processors are better positioned to meet users' demands for high-speed networks, optimized battery life, and ultra-high processing speeds and efficiency.

Overall, the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor is a decent processor with super processing power, support for a wide range of devices, and stable performance. The beauty of the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor is that it is capable of supporting 5G, supports 4K****, can provide ultra-high processing speed and efficiency, and is also able to provide optimized battery life. With the popularization of 5G technology, the development prospects of Qualcomm Snapdragon processors are very optimistic.

The background is different, Qualcomm belongs to the top enterprise of this industrial chain, and has the right to speak and patent rights to the communication system, such as CDMA2000, this is led by Qualcomm, any device that supports CDMA must give Qualcomm patent fees, whether you are Apple or Samsung, this is enough to see Qualcomm's position in this industry.

In the history of mobile phone CPU manufacturing, Qualcomm has more heritage, many WM mobile phone CPUs in the previous WM era are Qualcomm's, and Android devices have been mainly Qualcomm's CPUs from the beginning, several G1, G2, G3, the first Nexus, and in addition to a handful of models, Nexus is basically Qualcomm, even if Huawei has HiSilicon, the only Huawei foundry Nexus6P is also Qualcomm, which can also be seen at least at the level of cooperation with Google, Qualcomm is stronger than other companies.

Let's talk about MediaTek MTK, in the era of Nokia's hegemony, MTK lives on copycat machines, MTK has also created the prosperity of Huaqiangbei, and with the rise of Android machines, copycat machines began to decline, Huaqiangbei is almost empty, MTK is facing a crisis, and it has also begun to transform, and the processor at the beginning is also for the low-end market.

Turn over about 2013year,At that time, there were a large number of thousand-yuan machines using MT6589 on the market,This processor has created a lot of firsts in the industry,It also makes MediaTek smoothly transformed,But what,People,Enterprise,It's easy to get carried away when it's too smooth,X10That isMT6795It's MTK's attempt to enter the high-end marketCPU,But it was turned into a thousand-yuan machine by Lei Jun's Redmi Note2,Later, although it was also proven to have good performance,But it's not enough to call itself a "flagship" , The comprehensive performance is similar to Qualcomm's 808, and there is also a "wifi door", which can also be seen that MTK's attainments are still not enough.

X20,X25,These two are the most popular processors in MTK recently,Comprehensive performance is equivalent to Qualcomm652,It is also used by many mobile phones,Mainly thousands of yuan machines,But it can be seen,Qualcomm suppressed more powerfully,Because there are also Snapdragon 650 and 652 machines at the same price to choose from,But judging from Redmi Note4 and 360N4S,Undoubtedly,MTK can give manufacturers more concessions, Because these two can be sold so cheaply under the premise of supporting CDMA (that is, under the premise of handing over Qualcomm's patent fees).

Although X25 is known as the flagship, compared to 820, even if it is the downclocked version of Xiaomi Mi 5820, the performance is still a little worse, X25's Antutu running score is about, the 820 running score is about, and the "full blood" 820 running score is as high as 14W.

It's mainly fluency,Just like the R7 Plus I'm currently using,615 for the whole network,X10 for mobile,X10Officially, it's a dry fight with Snapdragon 810,Although it can also play with 805,But in the network baseband,And the fluency that has been used for a long time,X10It's really not as good as 615。 Just like AMD and Intel for computers, MTK relies on heap cores to improve performance, and Qualcomm is the core of the improvement upgrade. MTK's ten cores are out, and Qualcomm has only been playing eight cores for a long time.

Qualcomm Snapdragon processors and MediaTek processors can't actually say which one is good and which one is bad.

At present, MediaTek has done a better job in terms of energy consumption and power saving; Qualcomm Snapdragon has done a good job in terms of performance, and each has its own advantages, depending on which aspect you pay more attention to in terms of daily use. You can't think that this is good and this is bad.

And the quality of the processor also depends on the horizontal comparison, for example, the latest MediaTek processor is definitely better than the previous Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

Take MediaTek's latest P60 as an example, this processor is similar to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660.

MediaTek Helio P60 processor, 8-core architecture, its single-core score is 1524, multi-core score is 5871, and the popular processor Snapdragon 660's single-core score is not much different, and the multi-core score is even closer. From this point of view, this MediaTek P60 processor has the strength to compete with the Snapdragon 660, and the P60 will use a 12nm process technology, so it will have better performance in terms of power consumption.

In addition to the improvement in hardware configuration, the MediaTek Helio P60 processor has also made a difference in AI. Following last year's P23 and P30 support the popularization of dual cameras and full screens, this time on the P60, there is a possibility to open the AI artificial intelligence function as a standard function to mobile phone manufacturers, accelerating the popularization of AI technology.

MediaTek P60 processor will be the mainstream product promoted by MediaTek in 2018,I believe that many domestic manufacturers will use the chip,In addition to the previously rumored OPPO、vivoIn addition,Xiaomi has also recently rumored to use the P60 chip。 For users who pursue cost-effectiveness, there is another good choice, MediaTek has beaten down this set of combinations, and there will be a good show in the competition in the mainstream mobile phone market this year.

1. Qualcomm CPU product line is very rich, from low to high can be divided into S1, S2, S3, S4 four grades, of which S1 is mainly aimed at thousand-yuan entry smartphones, with poor performance; The S2 is aimed at mid-range single-core phones, while the S3 is developed for regular dual-core phones.

2. S4 is Qualcomm's next-generation processor, which adopts a new "Krait" architecture and 28nm process, and has extremely powerful performance, mainly used in high-end multi-core smartphones.

3. Qualcomm is now the largest mobile phone chip manufacturer, accounting for more than 50% of the market share of the mobile phone chip market.

4. The biggest feature of Qualcomm CPU is high integration, Qualcomm chipset integrates communication modules, users only need a Qualcomm processor to basically achieve all the main functions, so it greatly shortens the product development cycle.

5. Qualcomm's processor is still relatively cost-effective.

6. Because Qualcomm adopts its self-developed processor architecture, the performance is still quite powerful in the same level of processors. For example, the previous generation of Scorpion processors, due to the addition of some out-of-order execution capabilities, compared with the same level of A8 architecture processors, has more performance advantages.

7. Each CPU can run independently, and the frequency of each CPU can be adjusted separately according to the complexity of the task, which is theoretically more power-saving. However, in terms of actual performance, it is about 30% lower than that of processors with a "synchronous multi-core" design.