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Tag: MediaTek

  • Taiwan Targets Silicon Photonics to Cut AI Chip Power Use by 50 Percent

    Taiwan Targets Silicon Photonics to Cut AI Chip Power Use by 50 Percent

    Taiwan is mobilising its chipmaking sector to commercialise silicon photonics and copackaged optics, with the Ministry of Economic Affairs backing efforts to overcome artificial intelligence computing bottlenecks.

    The island holds over 90 percent of global manufacturing capacity for chips at 7 nanometers or below, while more than 30 firms including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and MediaTek Inc formed an industry alliance in 2024.

    Silicon photonics replaces conventional copper wiring between chips with optical signals. Because optical transmission generates negligible heat, the technology cuts device power consumption by 30 to 50 percent, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. That saving eases cooling limits in high-density AI data centres. It also clears the 1.6-terabit-per-second bandwidth ceiling that hampers electronic links.

    Optics Replace Copper Interconnects

    Heavy capital is pouring across the hardware supply chain. Nvidia invested US$4 billion into silicon photonics development in March. The chipmaker needs architectures that sustain real-time AI workloads and high-definition streaming without overheating server racks.

    Taiwanese authorities have folded the technology into their New 10 Major AI Infrastructure Projects. Funding flows through the government’s A+ Enterprise Innovation research programme. The scheme subsidises domestic research teams and equipment developers building local manufacturing tooling.

    Alliance Mobilises Heavyweights

    Execution on the ground rests on the Silicon Photonics Industry Alliance, a consortium established in 2024 with industry group SEMI. The group brings together more than 30 technology suppliers. Members include Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, ASE Technology Holding, MediaTek and Hon Hai Precision Industry.

    Asian hardware vendors and server assemblers face shifting procurement cycles. Traditional printed circuit board layouts will yield to integrated optical packaging. As a result, component suppliers must retool production lines for optical transceivers and precision glass substrates.

    Manufacturing risks centre on packaging yields and costs. Integrating laser sources and optical waveguides directly alongside silicon dies requires packaging tolerances tighter than standard wire bonding. These yield hurdles could delay volume delivery.

    Race for Next-Generation Packaging

    Foundry and packaging operators have spent years researching optics to counter the slowdown of traditional transistor scaling. Physical node shrinking now delivers diminishing returns. Advanced packaging formats like copackaged optics have become the primary path to computing efficiency.

    Prototype lines are now running across alliance members to finalise copackaged optics standards before volume production begins for 2026 data centre hardware cycles.

  • Samsung rumored to begin mass production of 3nm chips next week

    Samsung rumored to begin mass production of 3nm chips next week

    Right now there are only two independent foundries that are able to manufacture cutting-edge chips. The companies are TSMC and Samsung Foundry. Independent foundries take chip designs created by other firms and build the actual chips off of that design. Both TSMC and Samsung are working on building chips using their 3nm process nodes. The smaller the process node used, the larger the number of transistors found inside a chip.
    This is important because the more transistors employed in a chip, the more powerful and energy-efficient that chip can be. Every two years or so, the process node gets smaller and more transistors fit inside an integrated circuit. This is the famous “Moore’s Law” that you’ve heard about, named after Intel and Fairchild semiconductor co-founder Gordon Moore. Remember, this is not an actual law and as smaller and smaller components are being built, this “observation” no longer can be fully counted on to double the transistor count every other year.
    Still, over time, you can see how “Moore’s Law” has forecast the incredible increase in processing capabilities over the years. Let’s take the iPhone X, which was released in November 2017 powered by the Apple A10 Bionic chipset. The latter carried 4.3 billion transistors in each chip. Now let’s move ahead to the 2021 iPhone 13 series which sports the A15 Bionic chipset. The A15 Bionic contains 15 billion transistors, up 27.1% from the 11.8 billion transistors employed by the A14 Bionic chip.
    So now Samsung and TSMC are battling for supremacy in the business of building chips for third-parties. TSMC is number one in most metrics and its customer list includes top tech firms such as Apple (its number one customer), MediaTek, Nvidia, Qualcomm, and others. But it appears, according to ExtremeTech, that Samsung will soon beat out TSMC by starting mass production of chips made using its 3nm process node next week with TSMC starting 3nm mass production later this year.
    Additionally, Samsung is going to use a new transistor structure on its 3nm chips called GAA or gate-all-around. With this structure, the flow of current is controlled by gates that contact the transistor on all four sides. TSMC will continue to use the FinFET structure which has been in place since the 22nm process node debuted. TSMC will finally scrap FinFET for GAA when it starts shipping 2nm chips in 2026.
    Samsung’s GAA design is called Multi-Bridge Channel Field Effect Transistor (MBCFET) also known as nanowires. This is one of only two different gate-all-around designs currently available with the second one known as GAAFET or nanowire.
    The report cites a major Korean news agency that says Samsung is expected to make a major announcement about its 3nm chip production shortly. It also notes that the move to gate-all-around from FinFet will reduce the area of a chip by 45% to help deliver a performance bump of 30% while reducing energy consumption by 50%. However, there is a big problem. Samsung was reportedly getting yields of only 10% to 20% at 3nm meaning that the vast majority of its 3nm chip dies cut from a wafer could not pass quality control.
    Back in February, a report indicated that Samsung’s yield on 4nm production was only 35% resulting in Samsung losing some business from chip designer Qualcomm. The latter supposedly moved some of those orders to TSMC. However, if Samsung Foundry is about to announce the start of high volume manufacturing (HVM) at the 3nm process node, one could come to the conclusion that Samsung Foundry has improved its 3nm yield.
    Speaking of 3nm, TSMC’s major customers such as AMD, Apple, Broadcom, Intel, MediaTek, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, have started to queue up for 3nm capacity. And next on the horizon, of course, is the 2nm process node that both TSMC and Samsung are working on. Another name is expected to join TSMC and Samsung on the list of  cutting-edge foundries. Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger has announced that the American company will regain process leadership from Samsung and TSMC by 2025.

     

  • The 5G-enabled Honor 60 series to be unveiled on December 1

    The 5G-enabled Honor 60 series to be unveiled on December 1

    It’s been less than a month since Honor launched its mid-range 50 series, and the Chinese company has even more smartphones in the pipeline. And it’s not hard to guess the name of Honor’s upcoming devices since the Chinese company has already teased the official announcement.

    The upcoming Honor 60 series is expected to feature at least three different models: Honor 60, Honor 60 Pro, and Honor SE. Unlike the Honor 50 that packs a Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset, the upcoming phones are expected to be more powerful.

    It’s not yet been confirmed, but the Honor Pro 60 is rumored to pack a high-end Snapdragon 870 chipset. Also, the phone will be powered by a 4,500 mAh battery with 100W fast charging support. The regular Honor 60 model on the other hand will only support 66W fast charging.

    However, considering the Honor 60 series is supposed to be aimed at the mid-range tier, these rumors may be false, and the upcoming phones might end up with the same chipset inside as the Honor 50 series, or perhaps trade it for a MediaTek processor like the Dimensity 900.

    Thankfully, we won’t have to wait long for these important details. Honor confirmed the 60 series will be unveiled in China on December 1, which is less than a week from now.

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  • ZTE partners China Telecom and MediaTek to complete industry’s first E2E commercial verification of FAST

    ZTE partners China Telecom and MediaTek to complete industry’s first E2E commercial verification of FAST

    ZTE Corporation, a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, announced that the Sichuan Branch of China Telecom, ZTE and MediaTek have jointly completed the industry’s first end-to-end commercial verification of FAST in Chengdu.

    Based on ZTE’s 5G-NR system and MediaTek’s UE imbedded with Dimensity chipsets, the Sichuan Branch of China Telecom has conducted the verification of FAST in commercial network of 2.1GHz and 3.5GHz. According to the verification result, FAST, compared to 3.5 GHz single carrier, increases the speed rate of uplink about 3 times for a single user at the cell edge.

    FAST, as the main solution of uplink enhancement technology, can deeply and effectively take full advantages of TDD-NR and FDD-NR to boost the 5G uplink performance. With FAST, uplink timeslot availability can be enhanced up to 100% under the condition of the dual-stream capability of UE, realizing the maximum spectrum utilization in both time domain and frequency domain.

    In 5G network commercialization and innovations, China Telecom, ZTE and MediaTek will continue to deepen their cooperation to explore new features and applications of 5G, so as to provide better services for their customers.

  • MediaTek teases unveiling of new flagship chip

    MediaTek teases unveiling of new flagship chip

    Last month, we might have surprised you by passing along Counterpoint Research’s third-quarter report on the top suppliers of chips to the smartphone industry. Instead of seeing Qualcomm’s name at the top, MediaTek led the way by supplying manufacturers with 31% of the smartphone chips sent to manufacturers during the quarter. And now the chip designer has put up a teaser on its official Weibo account calling for a January 20th announcement of new Dimensity chipsets.

    The company wrote on Weibo “On January 20, the new products of the Dimensity series will meet with you. Brand new products, superior technology, and upgraded experience. While MediaTek didn’t reveal much information about the component, sources are saying that one of the new chips will be the MT689X. The latter could be MediaTek’s next flagship chip manufactured using the 6nm process node.

    The 5nm A14 Bionic chipset used on the Apple iPhone 12 series is the most cutting-edge chip used on a smartphone at the moment. Soon, the 5nm Exynos 2100 and Snapdragon 888 will be employed on the Samsung Galaxy S21 line. The lower the process number, the higher a chip’s transistor density and the more powerful and energy-efficient a chip is.

    MediaTek’s 6nm chip, the MT689X, will feature the Mali G-77 GPU. ARM’s high-performance Cortex-A78 core will also be included. And based on an Antutu benchmark test, the new chip will be similar in performance to Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line 2020 chip, the Snapdragon 865+. The new 6nm chip is expected to be employed in smartphones that are priced in the neighborhood of $300.

    The fact that the chip designer’s components find favor with manufacturers producing lower-priced devices is one of the reasons why MediaTek’s Dimensity line has been so successful. In the middle of a global pandemic that has destroyed consumers’ finances, many are settling for lower-priced handsets and tablets, especially in developing countries.

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  • Qualcomm is no longer the top supplier of chipsets for smartphones

    Qualcomm is no longer the top supplier of chipsets for smartphones

    There has been a change in the smartphone industry. During the third quarter of this year covering July through September, MediaTek overtook Qualcomm to become the top provider of chipsets for the smartphone industry with a 31% share of the market. Counterpoint attributes MediaTek’s success to strong sales of phones in the $100-$250 price range amid strong growth in the top two smartphone markets in the world; that would be China (#1) and India (#2). As a developing country, Indian consumers prefer value brands many of which use MediaTek chips instead of Qualcomm’s pricier Snapdragon silicon.

    This is not to say that Qualcomm couldn’t find a sweet spot for growth in Q3. With 39% of the market, the chip maker is the leading provider of 5G chipsets for phones and this is a market that doubled during the third quarter. Counterpoint says that 17% of  all phones sold during the third quarter supported 5G. That figure is expected to rise to 33% for the current quarter that started in October and concludes at the end of the year. With strong growth in 5G shipments for the fourth quarter, Qualcomm does have a chance to take back the crown that MediaTek took away from it.

    MediaTek’s leading 31% share of the smartphone chipset market was a 19% percent gain from the 25% share that the Taiwan based firm had last year. During the same time period, Qualcomm’s slice of the chipset pie for handsets declined from a leading 31% to the current 29%. Apple was third as its A-series chips, built exclusively for its phones and tablets, garnered 12% of the market. That put Apple in a three-way tie with Samsung and Huawei’s HiSilicon unit.

    Counterpoint Research Director Dale Gai pointed out that “MediaTek’s strong market share gain in Q3 2020 happened due to three reasons – strong performance in the mid-end smartphone price segment ($100-$250) and emerging markets like LATAM (Latin America) and MEA (Middle East and Asia), the US ban on Huawei and finally wins in leading OEMs like Samsung, Xiaomi and Honor. The share of MediaTek chipsets in Xiaomi has increased by more than three times since the same period last year. MediaTek was also able to leverage the gap created due to the US ban on Huawei. Affordable MediaTek chips fabricated by TSMC became the first option for many OEMs to quickly fill the gap left by Huawei’s absence. Huawei had also previously purchased a significant amount of chipsets ahead of the ban.”

    Gai also noted that, “On the other hand, Qualcomm also posted strong share gains (from a year ago) in the high-end segment in Q3 2020, again thanks to HiSilicon’s supply issues. However, Qualcomm faced competition from MediaTek in the mid-end segment. We believe both will continue to compete intensively through aggressive pricing, and mainstream 5G SoC products into 2021.”

    Counterpoint Research Analyst Ankit Malhotra added, “Qualcomm and MediaTek have both reshuffled their portfolios, and consumer focus has played a key role here. Last year, MediaTek launched a new gaming-based G-series, while Dimensity chipsets have helped in bringing 5G to affordable categories. The world’s cheapest 5G device, the realme V3, is powered by MediaTek. Using his crystal ball to look into the future, Malhotra said, “The immediate focus of chipset vendors will be to bring 5G to the masses, which will then unlock the potential of consumer 5G use cases like cloud gaming, which in turn will lead to higher demand for higher clocked GPUs and more powerful processors. Qualcomm and MediaTek will continue to contend for the top position.”

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  • New chipset announced today will make 5G easier for consumers to afford

    New chipset announced today will make 5G easier for consumers to afford

    Chip designer MediaTek impressed many when it introduced its new flagship Dimesnity 1000 SoC. The chipset includes an integrated 5G modem chip that supports both sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G, and LTE. Additionally, the Dimensity 1000 has four high-performance Cortex-A77 CPU cores running at a clock speed of 2.2GHz and four Cortex-A55 efficiency CPU cores running at 2GHz. ARM’s Mali-G77 MP9 graphics chip is included. The chip is manufactured by TSMC using its 7nm process.
    MediaTek unveiled the Dimesnsity 800, a chipset designed for lower priced 5G handsets. This will help bring the faster 5G data speeds to those who normally wouldn’t be able to afford a device that supports the next generation of wireless connectivity. While the company claims that the integrated 5G modem chip is more efficient when it comes to battery life, there is a catch. The modem on the Dimensity 800 does not support mmWave 5G signals, which deliver the faster 5G data speeds. This means that devices powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 800 SoC can connect in the states with T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network and AT&T’s consumer 5G network. However, Verizon’s 5G mmWave network is out.
    The Dimensity 800 will feature four Cortex-A76 CPU cores running at a clock speed up to 2GHz and four Cortex-A55 CPU cores also running up to 2GHz. MediaTek says that with four performance cores, demanding gaming applications will launch faster. The chip supports displays carrying a resolution up to FHD+ (1080p) with a refresh rate of up to 90Hz. It will drive a quad-camera setup with a primary sensor up to 64MP and handle camera-based AI, facial detection, automatic noise reduction, and white balance.
    Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765 Mobile Platform and its gaming enhanced Snapdragon 765G might have only half the number of performance cores as the Dimensity 800 sports, but it does support some higher-spec’d phones. Qualcomm’s chips handle both sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G signals. The Snapdragon 765/765G will be equipped with a pair of Cortex-A76 CPU cores, one running at 2.3GHz, the other at 2.2GHz. Six Cortex-A55 cores running up to 1.8GHz are also included. The component also supports QHD+ resolution displays (1440p), 192MP camera systems and video at 4K.
    MediaTek hopes to have its flagship Dimensity 800 inside devices launching in the first half of this year. TL Lee, the head of MediaTek’s wireless business unit, said, “MediaTek already launched its flagship 5G smartphone solution, the Dimensity 1000, and with the 800 series 5G chipset family, we are bringing 5G to the mid-tier and mass market. Everyone should have access to great technology. The Dimensity 800 Series will power the New Premium segment for 5G, bringing consumers flagship smartphone features and performance at mid-range price points.”
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