[Salute to Telecom Day] Do you know all this cutting-edge knowledge about mobile phone chips?

Latest update time：2021-09-06 11:03

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In the rapidly developing information and communication industry, the innovative development of mobile phone chips has promoted the rapid upgrading and popularization of smart phones, bringing great convenience to life. The generation-by-generation increase in the number of mobile phone cores, the rapid popularization of mobile communication systems from 3G to 4G, the exponential growth of camera pixels, the continuous breakthroughs in audio and video entertainment functions, and the gradual upgrading of mobile phone security systems are all driving the advent of the smart life wave after wave. The 5.17 World Telecommunication Day with the theme of "The Driving Force of Innovation" has just passed its 150th birthday. In order to pay tribute and congratulations, let Xiaomei sort out the technological frontiers in today's smart phones and take everyone to explore the inside of the mobile phone.

strongest brain

Speaking of the core components of today's smartphones, the CPU is of course the best . In recent years, from single-core to dual-core, from quad-core to octa-core, multi-core CPUs have given mobile phones unprecedented processing performance, and the "nuclear war" in the mobile phone industry in the past two years is still fresh in people's memory. Today, chip manufacturers are focusing on developing processing chips with more cores, while achieving full market coverage through products with different core counts, in order to compete for adoption in the smartphone market. Since multi-core CPUs are so important to mobile phones, how do the cores work together to help significantly improve the performance of mobile phones?

Let's talk about the mainstream eight-core CPU in the current mid-to-high-end market. Let's take Marvell's latest PXA1936 as an example. In this true eight-core 64-bit SoC CPU, there are 4 large cores and 4 small cores to handle tasks with different loads. Marvell has adopted a cutting-edge technology called GTS, the full name of which is Global Task Scheduling . Its function is to schedule the task processing of 8 cores. GTS is the most advanced solution for scheduling large and small cores. The scheduler will schedule tasks more intelligently, scheduling light-load tasks to small cores for processing, and transferring heavy-load tasks to large cores, so as to achieve the optimal configuration of performance and power consumption, and give full play to the strongest performance brought by 8 cores!

Multi-core CPUs have activated the performance of mobile phones, but at the same time, power consumption has become a headache. At this time, the CPU power management module needs to play a role . Marvell processors have the most advanced high-performance power management module. On the one hand, its high integration simplifies peripherals to the greatest extent and reduces platform costs. On the other hand, it manages power more effectively. Fully opening eight cores can also bring longer standby time, and you no longer have to worry about "brain overheating".

Sensor Center

Recently, various sports and health apps have become increasingly popular, and screenshots of various apps have been posted all over WeChat Moments. They provide more accurate sensing functions through advanced algorithms, such as locating running paths, calculating energy consumption, and analyzing sleep quality, turning the phone into a personal health consultant. However, these applications require sensors to be turned on around the clock to collect data, which will inevitably affect the battery life of the phone. To prevent these sensors from taking up too much energy, we can integrate a control center called Sensor Hub into the chip . Just like the human nerve center controls receptors throughout the body, the Sensor Hub can connect to various mobile phone sensors, continuously store and process sensor data under low power consumption, and make the phone smarter and more power-saving while leading a healthy life.

Keep your eyes and ears open

A qualified smartphone must be able to see and hear everything, in other words, it must have high-performance, multi-functional camera equipment and a high-recognition voice call system . But do you know that high-pixel cameras and high-definition voice equipment are not enough, and the chip also plays a role in this.

Let's take a look at the various superpowers that Marvell chips give to mobile phone cameras: 1. Zero-delay photography, instantly capturing wonderful moments; 2. Full-pixel high-speed continuous shooting, up to 8 frames per second processing speed; 3. Excellent color noise reduction performance, better performance in low-light environments . So when buying a mobile phone in the future, don't just look at the pixel level, the shooting effects of mobile phones with different chips may also be very different.

Clear voice calls are one of the most important functions of mobile phones, and the chip can give mobile phones excellent noise reduction performance . According to the test data of Marvell PXA1936/1908, in ordinary life scenes, the noise reduction ability can reach 20dB, and in some extreme noise environments, such as bars, vegetable markets and other noisy environments, the noise reduction ability can be as high as 40dB. With high-definition voice equipment, there is no need to shout at the phone even if the surrounding is noisy.

Safety Armor

The advent of the smartphone and cloud era has led to an order of magnitude increase in data volume, and the resulting information leakage and privacy security have become key issues in the process of using mobile phones. In people's general perception, the information security of mobile phones can only be protected by secure systems and software, but in fact, real mobile phone security requires efforts at the bottom of the system, integrating security processors on hardware chips, and creating a solid security armor for mobile phones .

Next, let's talk about the security processor, which is one of Marvell's magic weapons. Since the early years, it has been working with BlackBerry to create the most secure mobile phone brand. After years of development, the PXA1936 now integrates the latest generation of independent security processors, which have passed the five-level security certification of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, the GlobalPlatform TEE certification, and the FIPS140-2 level3 certification, and have a five-level security system. The security processor can achieve physical isolation at the SoC chip base point, provide security optimization and enhancement for the original mobile phone system, encrypt and manage user privacy, provide a safer mobile payment method, and even escort enterprise-level business information . The highest level of hardware isolation protection for smartphones depends on it.

Is it interesting? There are many secrets in a small mobile phone. Every inconspicuous innovative technology contains a lot of wisdom. How will smartphones develop and upgrade in the future, and what cutting-edge technologies will soon come into view? It is worth looking forward to it.

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