5G chips, Huawei vs. Qualcomm, who is catching up?-EEWORLD

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In iFixit's recent teardown, they found that Huawei's first 5G smartphone, the Mate 20X, is using components that are not only larger than Qualcomm's Snapdragon, but also run relatively hot. After IHS Markit's teardown, the engineering differences between the two 5G competitors are now clearer.

In a report released today, IHS Markit said that after tearing down six early 5G smartphones, it made some interesting findings: Based on chip size, system design, and memory considerations, Huawei has brought a relatively inefficient solution to market, which will result in devices that are larger, more expensive, and less energy efficient than they would otherwise be.

Huawei's self-developed processors used in its 5G phones are quite a balance, including the Kirin 980 system-on-chip and the Balong 5000 5G modem, the latter of which is called the first commercial multi-mode 5G/4G/3G/2G chip. In theory, the modem should give the Mate 20X an advantage over devices with earlier Snapdragon chips, but as IHS said, the Kirin 980 has its own 4G/3G/2G modem built in, which is "unused and unnecessary" inside the phone, which increases its cost, battery usage and PCB footprint.

The space savings from a smaller SoC won’t be insignificant, and will come with the added inefficiencies of the associated components. Huawei’s modem chip is reportedly 50% larger than Qualcomm’s first-generation X50 modem, “which is surprisingly large,” with 3GB of supporting memory just for the modem and lack of support for mmWave 5G networks.

By comparison, IHS principal analyst Wayne Lam told VentureBeat that Samsung’s Exynos 5100 modem chip is “almost identical in size to the X50.” The report described Huawei’s design choices as “far from ideal,” noting that they “stand out as challenging for early 5G technology.”

Despite these issues, IHS notes that Huawei's reliance on one 5G/4G/3G/2G modem rather than two separate 5G and 4G/3G/2G modems is the way forward for the industry because it enables the convergence of the modem and related components such as the adio-tuning RF front end and radio antennas. While the Mate 20X has separate 4G and 5G radio tuners, these parts will also become more integrated over time, improving power efficiency. Qualcomm is expected to be the only real alternative for operators and OEMs interested in supporting mmWave 5G because it already offers a complete modem-to-antenna design; its only multi-vendor competitor, MediaTek, focuses on non-mmWave components.

IHS expects the next step - integrating a 5G/4G/3G/2G multimode modem directly into the smartphone SoC processor - to be completed in 2020. This would eliminate the need for a separate modem and cut costs by eliminating separate modem RAM and power management chips. MediaTek has already announced such a 5G SoC for 2020 devices.

But competitors may come out with a more integrated RF front end that fully supports both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G, enabling “better, cheaper, and faster 5G smartphones” to come to market next year.

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