Samsung and Oppo Seek to Rival iPhone A-Series Chips With Custom Designs and TSMC Fabrication
Samsung and Oppo are planning to transition to custom silicon chips to rival Apple's A-series chips in the iPhone, according to recent reports.
![oppo find x5](https://images.macrumors.com/t/PyWKsdyvXkHeeIqRxRFJ4YHuaTg=/400x0/article-new/2022/02/oppo-find-x5.jpg?lossy)
Earlier this year, Chinese smartphone brand Oppo launched its first custom silicon chip, the MariSilicon X image processor, in the Find X5. Now, the company's chip design team is developing an application processor (AP) and an entire custom System on Chip (SoC) for future Oppo devices, IT Home reports. Like Apple's custom silicon chips, Oppo is looking to TSMC to manufacture its chips.
IT Home suggests that Oppo will launch its custom AP, manufactured with TSMC's 6nm process, in 2023. This will reportedly be followed by a full SoC, integrating the AP and modem, manufactured with TSMC's 4nm process, in 2024. The chips may not be comparable to offerings from Qualcomm and Mediatek in terms of efficiency and fabrication processes, but they could be adopted in entry-level mobile products first before increasing market penetration over time.
Meanwhile, iNews 24 reports that Samsung smartphone chief Roh Tae-moon told a company town hall meeting that "we will make an AP unique to the Galaxy." The push toward custom silicon chips is reportedly being driven by GPS issues and poor thermal performance caused by the Exynos 2200 chip in Samsung's latest Galaxy S22 series of smartphones. Samsung hopes that it will be able to mirror Apple in taking multiple considerations into account with its custom chips instead simply of putting performance at the forefront.
The movement is seemingly part of a trend of increasing ambition from Android smartphone brands to rival Apple more directly and become the world's biggest smartphone brand, with Oppo laying out plans to aggressively compete in the high-end smartphone market and Xiaomi pledging a "war of life and death" against Apple.
Popular Stories
Following nearly two years of rumors about a fourth-generation iPhone SE, The Information today reported that Apple suppliers are finally planning to begin ramping up mass production of the device in October of this year. If accurate, that timeframe would mean that the next iPhone SE would not be announced alongside the iPhone 16 series in September, as expected. Instead, the report...
Key details about the overall specifications of the iPhone 17 lineup have been shared by the leaker known as "Ice Universe," clarifying several important aspects of next year's devices. Reports in recent months have converged in agreement that Apple will discontinue the "Plus" iPhone model in 2025 while introducing an all-new iPhone 17 "Slim" model as an even more high-end option sitting...
Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today shared alleged specifications for a new ultra-thin iPhone 17 model rumored to launch next year. Kuo expects the device to be equipped with a 6.6-inch display with a current-size Dynamic Island, a standard A19 chip rather than an A19 Pro chip, a single rear camera, and an Apple-designed 5G chip. He also expects the device to have a...
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series around mid-September, which means we are about two months out from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design differences and new features to take into account. To bring ...
Apple’s iCloud Private Relay service is down for some users, according to Apple’s System Status page. Apple says that the iCloud Private Relay service may be slow or unavailable. The outage started at 2:34 p.m. Eastern Time, but it does not appear to be affecting all iCloud users. Some impacted users are unable to browse the web without turning iCloud Private Relay off, while others are...