Without the glory of "Kirin Arm", it forms a "CP" with Ziguang ZTE

After Honor was separated from Huawei, speculation about whose chips Honor would use has never stopped. MediaTek, Qualcomm and UNISOC have all been rumored to supply chips for Honor phones, but in the end, MediaTek was the only one that was officially "stamped".

So far, both Honor V40 and V40 light luxury phones use MediaTek chips.

Recently, news about the cooperation between UNISOC and Honor has appeared again. According to the exposure of Weibo digital blogger @看山的叔叔, Honor's new mobile phone Changwan 20 will be equipped with Tiger T610 processor. The phone is equipped with a 6.5-inch LCD screen, a 5000mAh large battery, and two memory configurations of 6+128GB and 8+128GB. The price starts at 899 yuan.

△Source: Honor official website

One day after the blogger broke the news, Honor officially announced that Honor Play 20 will be available for sale across all channels on April 30, and its parameters and configuration are consistent with those revealed by digital blogger @看山的叔叔.

Huben enters the supply chain of large manufacturers for the first time

The Tiger T610 chip equipped in the Honor Play 20 uses a 12nm process and DynamIQ architecture design. It consists of two 1.8GHz Arm Cortex-A75 CPUs and six 1.8GHz Arm Cortex-A55 processors, and the GPU uses a 614.4MHz Mali G52.

For Unisoc, Honor is the first major mobile phone manufacturer to use the Tiger chip in mass-produced phones. Although every iteration and upgrade of the Tiger chip will attract a lot of attention, in terms of the market, perhaps due to its market positioning and other reasons, the Tiger chip has always been outside the mainstream domestic mobile phone manufacturers. Only niche mobile phone brands such as Coolpad, Hisense and the former DOOV use Unisoc's Tiger chip.

Last year, Coolpad released a new mobile phone X10, which uses the Huben T7510 chip, which is also the first 5G chip under Tsinghua Unigroup. It is manufactured using TSMC's 12nm process and has a quad-core A75 + quad-core A55 CPU. The GPU is PowerVR GM9444, and the main frequency can reach 800MHz.

△Source: Zhongguancun Online

But the embarrassing thing about this phone is that nearly half a year has passed, and it seems that no e-commerce company is selling this product.

The Tiger Guards were renamed Tanggula

In addition to Coolpad X10, Hisense F50+ is also equipped with the Tiger T7510 5G chip, but recently Unisoc has renamed the Tiger to "Tanggula", and the T7510 chip has also been renamed T740. According to Unisoc's estimate, 5G terminals equipped with T770 are expected to be mass-produced and launched in July 2021.

△Source: Unisoc official website

From the perspective of UNISOC's planning for the Tanggula series, Tanggula is divided into four product series: 6, 7, 8, and 9. Among them, Tanggula 6 series is positioned as a 5G inclusive product, 7 series emphasizes product experience upgrades, 8 series focuses on performance pioneers, and 9 series is cutting-edge technology.

In terms of products, Ziguang ZTE expects to launch dozens of products based on its own 5G platform this year, mainly targeting the domestic market, including mobile phones, 5G modules, 5G CPE and other products.

Listing

The IPO of Unisoc has always attracted much attention. According to Tianyancha information, Unisoc has recently completed a new round of financing before its IPO, with a financing amount of 5.35 billion yuan, jointly invested by four original shareholders including Shanghai Guosheng Capital, Country Garden Venture Capital, Haier Financial Holdings and SteelSeries Capital.

△Source: Tianyancha

Currently, Unisoc is optimizing its equity and organizational structure before listing, and is expected to apply for the Science and Technology Innovation Board by the end of 2021. Prior to this, Unisoc also received a total of 5 billion yuan in capital increase from the National Big Fund Phase II, Shanghai Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, and Zhuji Wenming Quanying Investment Management Partnership (Limited Partnership). Currently, the National Big Fund Phase II has only invested in 9 companies, and Unisoc is the first company to receive investment from the National Big Fund Phase II.

Conclusion

At present, the Tiger chip has successfully squeezed into Honor's supply chain, but the current Honor is a little different from the Honor two years ago. Honor, which has separated from Huawei, is still working hard to prove itself. ‍‍‍‍‍‍Honor's use of Unisoc's Tiger chip is a test, and it is an opportunity for both parties. As for where the two parties will go in the future, everything is unknown.