A 4G camera, what is its core, first of all is the main control chip, the parameters and performance related to video are all based on the ability of the main control chip, and the second is the 4G baseband communication chip.
Because the development of the module industry is relatively complete now, we are most often exposed to 4G modules instead of chips, but in fact the real core technology and competitiveness are in the hands of a few original baseband chip manufacturers.
So in this article, we will talk about things related to baseband chips, such as which chip manufacturers are there? What developments have these original factories experienced? Where is the threshold of baseband communication chips? Wait for these questions.
Before introducing the above content in detail, it may not be easy for friends who do not study communication or science to understand, so do a basic science first.
There are many articles, you can bookmark them first.
01
Introduction to baseband chip
What is a baseband (Baseband) chip? We can often see outdoor signal towers, which are base stations, through which signals of different frequency bands can be transmitted outward, which are the signals corresponding to different bands we mentioned earlier.
Then in our commonly used network terminals (mobile phones, 4G IPC, etc.), there is also a chip that receives and processes these signals. This is what we call a baseband chip, just like the Modem we use to surf the Internet.
Just like Xiaomi’s launch of new mobile phones, it is often mentioned that a certain Qualcomm’s latest processor is used. In addition to representing indicators such as higher computing performance and lower power consumption, it also includes baseband capabilities, including frequency bands covered by the Internet. , the maximum uplink and downlink speed and many other communication indicators.
If you want to talk about the development history of the original baseband communication chip, it must follow the communication development history of communication technology. The market structure has also undergone tremendous changes in different stages from 1G to 5G.
Since the most important terminal is the mobile phone, and the most used mobile phone is also the mobile phone, so when we introduce chip manufacturers in different periods below, we mainly focus on mobile phone communication chips. Of course, we will introduce the communication chips related to 4G cameras separately at the end.
Here is a brief mention that there is a big difference between the mobile phone communication chip and the communication chip used in the 4G camera, that is, the mobile phone needs to support full Netcom, and the application for subdivided products like 4G cameras is not so high. requirements.
02
Mainstream baseband chip manufacturers at different stages
1G era:
Since Bell Labs successfully developed the first-generation cellular phone system (AMPS) in 1978 and successfully commercialized it later, Motorola has made a splash in the field of mobile communications, accounting for more than 70% of the market.
During this period, Motorola not only made its own mobile phones, but also made base stations and chips in mobile phones. The predecessor of Freescale (Freescale), which had a place in the semiconductor field in the later period, was spun off from Motorola's semiconductor department.
2G era:
GSM was launched in 1982, moving from the analog age to the digital age. This stage is also the most glorious era for Nokia. The communication chip manufacturer that cooperates with it is mainly TI (Texas Instruments). At this time, with the expansion of Nokia's market share in mobile phones, TI's share in the mobile phone processor market once exceeded 50%.
3G era:
The 3G era is a huge watershed, and the communication giant Qualcomm jumped up at this time.
At this stage, there are still many manufacturers involved in baseband chip companies. Major 3G mobile phone chip manufacturers include Qualcomm, Infineon, Freescale, NXP, Broadcom, Marvell, and Texas Instruments, as well as MediaTek (MTK), which entered the market later. .
4G era:
In the 4G era, the main manufacturers of mobile phone chips include Qualcomm, MediaTek, Intel, Huawei HiSilicon, Samsung, Datang Lianxin (the Xiaomi Surging S1 chip comes from this), and Ziguang Zhanrui.
The only manufacturers that can do full Netcom (2/3/4G) are Qualcomm, MediaTek, Intel, Huawei HiSilicon, and Samsung.
It can be seen that the market has undergone great changes at this time. For example, Texas Instruments and Marvell (the mobile communication department was acquired by Aojie Technology) have gradually withdrawn from the 4G market, and HiSilicon has begun to develop rapidly in the 4G period.
Although many manufacturers have withdrawn from the market at this time, and new manufacturers have entered the market, it does not mean that their companies or technologies have disappeared, but that most of them have changed hands through acquisitions and mergers.
You must know that many well-known semiconductor companies today are separated from a certain department of some traditional old semiconductor companies, and mergers and reorganizations between various semiconductor companies are not uncommon. So I won't introduce it here.
5G era:
In the 5G era, after another round of reshuffle, because Intel and Leadcore sold their baseband business, there are only five companies in the world that can mass-produce 5G mobile phone chips—Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, and Ziguang. sharp.
It can be seen how high the threshold for mobile baseband chips is. Even Apple, which has a market value of more than two trillion yuan, did not have its own baseband chips before 2019, but entered this market by acquiring Intel. In fact, sometimes money can solve many problems.
03
Why is the circle of mobile phone baseband chips so small
It can be seen that after so many years of development, there are not many manufacturers who can play with baseband chips. So what are the thresholds?
1. High investment
Making chips itself is a high-threshold and high-investment industry, and the initial investment is huge, so it is impossible to enter this field without strong financial support;
2. High technical threshold
Communication technology is gradually upgraded from 1G to 5G and iterated to the second generation. Even in the 5G era, the chips made must be backward compatible with 3G/4G frequency bands and standards at the same time. It is difficult to have a certain technical advantage in a certain standard. For large-scale commercial use, you can see customized phones that only support a certain operator in the past, but now you can see all mobile phones with full Netcom.
3. Core patent monopoly
This is also what I think is the most critical point. Why is Qualcomm able to make money lying down? Even Apple can be manipulated by him. Big lawsuits related to patents are not uncommon, and it is not uncommon to sue any company at every turn. The big reason is that in the 3G era, he won most of the core patents of CDMA, and he buried many technologies in the communication standards, which many manufacturers cannot bypass.
Another company with more CDMA patents is Wei Rui Dentsu, whose parent company is the well-known VIA. The success of MediaTek and Intel in baseband chips also has a huge relationship with the company Wei Rui. MediaTek cooperated with Wei Rui in 2014 to obtain the authorization of CDMA2000 and supported telecom 3G, thus realizing All Netcom. Intel acquired VMware Telecom outright in 2015.
Therefore, it is right to say that first-class enterprises set standards. Judging from the current communication landscape, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your R&D strength is great, and you will be able to succeed. Although you can break through some technologies, it does not mean that you can use them directly, because most of the patents are in the hands of a small number of manufacturers. It is necessary to solve the problem of whether people will let you use it, and if you let you use it, how much will you pay for it.
In the upgrade of 4G and 5G, Huawei also has more voice, and the corresponding patented technology is also restricting companies such as Qualcomm.
4. Supporting supply chain
With the upgrading of higher technology, this kind of RF-related chips has higher and higher requirements for technology. From the earliest 90nm chip to the current lowest 4nm, it is a challenge for fabs, chip design software, etc. A huge test requires the supporting support of the entire industrial chain, and the intermediate links are indispensable.
So at this time, it does not mean that as long as you have money and research and development, you can get it done. After all, no matter how rich you are, it is impossible to complete and do a good job of the entire industrial chain.
05
4G cellular IoT chip manufacturers
Above we used the mobile phone baseband chip as an introduction. As we mentioned earlier, one of the big requirements for the mobile phone baseband chip is full Netcom, while other IoT devices like IPCs do not have such high requirements.
In addition to the above-mentioned major chip manufacturers, there are other chip manufacturers in 4G IoT applications. The main manufacturers are as follows:
Qualcomm, Ziguang Zhanrui, MediaTek, HiSilicon, Aosier, Mobile Core, etc., basically sell Cat 1 4G IPCs in China (I hope you don’t forget the Cat1 knowledge points mentioned above) are used more in products Chips from manufacturers such as Zhanrui, Aojie, and Movexin are mainly used, because the price competition of Cat 1 chips is too fierce.
06
Summarize
There is a lot of content in the article, and I have explained it to you in a concise and contextual way. I guess it will be difficult for many people to fully digest it after reading it, so you can bookmark the article first.
You can go out and brag about any part of the article after you understand it. You don’t need to understand it completely, but at least in this industry, it is closely related to the products you buy or sell, so you still need to understand some basic knowledge.
In the next article, we will introduce who are the 4G IoT module manufacturers, some considerations for choosing a module manufacturer, and some competitive strategies of module manufacturers.
This article mainly refers to Zhihu's "What other companies in the world can do baseband?" "-Sapphire King's column.
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