Committed to building "5G for the people", Unisoc demonstrates the infinite possibilities of the 5G era

2020 is destined to be an extraordinary year. On May 15, after Huawei encountered the strongest ban from the United States, the global semiconductor market can be described as "changing rapidly", and it also gave China, which is in rapid development, a "buffer". But challenges also mean opportunities. The forced suppression of the United States is undoubtedly a "heart booster" for China, forcing China to firmly grasp the opportunities of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. The road to domestic substitution is unstoppable.

As one of the key technologies leading a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation opportunities, the importance of 5G technology is self-evident. In the process of rapid development of the global 5G industry, chips as the cornerstone will also be given a greater mission. "At present, there are only five 5G baseband chip suppliers in the world, so any one of them is very important. This is the value of Unisoc in the 5G industry." Zhou Chen, executive vice president of Unisoc, said at a media open day event recently.

Zhou Chen, Executive Vice President of Unisoc

Committed to building 5G for the people

The curtain of the 5G technology "feast" has already been opened, and as a key "member" of it, how will the value of Unisoc be reflected? In the observation of Jiwei.com reporters, the value of Unisoc is mainly reflected in two aspects: one is the strength of technology research and development, and the other is the determination to enable 5G terminals.

As we all know, compared with 4G technology, 5G has higher bandwidth, smaller chip area, and more stringent low power consumption requirements. Therefore, every link from design to production has very high requirements. In addition to the extremely challenging R&D technology, the R&D cost of hundreds of millions of dollars is also one of the important reasons why there are only five 5G baseband chip suppliers in the world.

On the road of 5G, Unisoc has taken every step firmly and quickly. In December 2014, when 4G smartphones were still popular, Unisoc started 5G research and development and established a 5G team; in February 2019, Unisoc released its self-developed 5G communication technology platform Makalu 1.0 and 5G baseband chip Spring V510; in August, Unisoc launched its first 5G solution, Tiger T7510; in February 2020, Unisoc launched a new generation of 5G SoC Tiger T7520 using 6nm EUV process technology, which will be mass-produced this year.

"From the perspective of Spreadtrum's 5G development route, from Ivy V510 to Huben 7510 to Huben 7520, it has undergone an iterative evolution of the 5G Makalu platform, thus adapting to the demands of overall intelligent development, including demands for communications and computing." Zhou Chen, executive vice president of Unigroup Spreadtrum, told Jiwei.com reporters.

With the "endorsement" of 5G technology, the next step of Spreadtrum's strategy is to extend it to more application scenarios. In Zhou Chen's view, the development of 5G is first of all based on To C, which is the foundation of 5G development. However, with the further evolution and improvement of 5G technical standards, 5G has a broader future in the field of Internet of Things, and will definitely have a greater impact and opportunities in the entire industrial Internet and smart society.

To this end, in addition to the Hisense F50 mobile phone equipped with the Tiger T7510, the 5G terminal products currently produced by Spreadtrum include a number of industry-oriented smart terminals, including the Unicom 5G CPE equipped with Spreadtrum Spring V510 and the Neoway 5G module N510 series. According to Zhou Chen, Spreadtrum will also launch many more industry-oriented smart terminals in the future, and it is expected that dozens of products based on the Spreadtrum 5G platform will be launched this year.

"We have always wanted to be the 'people's 5G'. Because 5G, as a technology, itself should not be a concept used to raise prices. We hope to push our 5G products into a broader market space so that our users and end users can get a better 5G experience," said Zhou Chen.

Continue to deepen the three major business areas

I still remember that at the Spreadtrum Media Open Day in August last year, Chu Qing, who had just joined Spreadtrum, explained the birth of the "New Spreadtrum" from five aspects: strategy, management, technology, quality, and culture. A year has passed in the blink of an eye, and Spreadtrum has indeed shown a different face to the outside world.

Under the leadership of Chu Qing, the new Spreadtrum is taking ecology as its core strategy, holding high the two technical banners of 5G and AI, and deepening its three business areas: the consumer electronics business serves the intelligent needs of individuals, the industrial electronics business supports the industrial system and social intelligence, and the pan-connectivity business explores new innovative network areas. At the same time, Spreadtrum is also making a full sprint towards the IPO of the Science and Technology Innovation Board.

According to Zhou Chen, in the field of consumer electronics, Unisoc currently has an annual chip supply capacity of hundreds of millions, and its products are mainly for individual users, including feature phones, smart phones, 5G phones, smart wearables, as well as innovative businesses such as voice recorders and translation sticks. In the field of feature phones, Unisoc has the most complete product layout in the world and has occupied the vast majority of the global market share; at the same time, in the field of smart phones, Unisoc's 4G shipments are increasing significantly, and the first 5G phone will be officially launched early next year; in addition, in the field of smart wearables, Unisoc has occupied half of the market share of 4G children's watches, and is planning two generations of new products in the future.

In the field of industrial electronics, Unisoc established an industrial electronics division in 2019, which is mainly oriented to the fields of intelligent Internet of Things, automotive electronics, and industrial control, and provides customers with advanced and complete solutions through a B2B model. Within Unisoc, the new industrial electronics division is also defined as a "startup department" and is led by Wang Bo, executive vice president of Unisoc. Surprisingly, the industrial electronics division, which was established just one year ago, has delivered an impressive performance report card. In the first year of its establishment, the division's sales exceeded US$100 million, and it strives to achieve the task goal of doubling its sales every year for three consecutive years.

In the field of pan-connectivity, Spreadtrum's advantages are also very prominent. In early 2018, after Spreadtrum Communications merged with RDA Microelectronics, Spreadtrum entered the field of the Internet of Things, covering everything from EMTC to device terminals, as well as various connection methods for chips and TVs. It has now become China's largest pan-connectivity chip design company. From 2G to 5G, to short-distance connections (BT, Wifi, RFFE) to wide-area low-power (NB-IOT), eMTC, GNSS (satellite navigation), Spreadtrum's core technologies are also an important support for its consumer electronics and industrial electronics fields.

According to Jiwei.com, after Chu Qing joined Spreadtrum, he first restructured and integrated the business logic in the architecture. Therefore, the three new business units (BUs) also changed the previous division of huge product lines and business units, providing a clearer and more specific development path for the new Spreadtrum.

Continuously support the development of innovative technologies

In addition to the adjustment of the company structure, the biggest surprise that the new Spreadtrum has brought to the outside world is undoubtedly its continuous support in innovative technology. At the recent media open day, Spreadtrum demonstrated its latest chip technologies such as dual-screen display, artificial intelligence imaging and vision, and AIoT smart application ecological platform for the 5G era.

Dual screen display function

The dual-screen display function means that the image signal needs to pass through the SOC chip to draw and synthesize the two images separately, and finally show the dual-screen display function. It is reported that the dual-screen display technology can be widely used in various industry scenarios or consumer electronics applications that require dual-screen display, such as multi-screen display of in-vehicle electronics, new retail, and new advertising machines. In particular, in new retail, smart order display can be realized, that is, customers and salespersons can see the content of different screens, which can enhance the customer's consumption experience.

Safe driving monitoring system

In terms of AI imaging and vision, Unisoc's self-developed imaging engine Vivimagic solution applies AI algorithms to image processing. The integration of algorithms and cameras will produce a variety of interesting camera functions and applications. Among them, the safe driving monitoring system DMS can automatically monitor and remind dangerous driving behaviors such as fatigue driving, distracted driving, and dangerous driving, and provide equipment failure alarms.

360-degree panoramic parking system technology

The 360-degree panoramic parking system technology can realize images from multiple virtual perspectives, including top view, bird's-eye view, front and rear angle views, forward/reverse views, left and right side views, and any virtual viewpoint view. At the same time, it can provide real-time trajectory information of the four corners of the vehicle based on the vehicle's turning information, providing the driver with all-round image information around the vehicle, eliminating visual blind spots, and making driving safer.