Unveiling the secrets behind OPPO's first chip: NPU dedicated to imaging, from IP algorithm to tape-out

It has been rumored for a long time that OPPO has been making chips, and today it’s finally here!

On December 14, 2021, OPPO's 2021 Future Technology Conference officially opened, and OPPO's first self-developed NPU chip Mariana®️ MariSilicon X was also officially released at the conference.

As a terminal company, OPPO's involvement in upstream chips has attracted much attention from the industry. The industry also has too many questions, such as: Why not SOC chips? When did OPPO start making chips? With such a large investment, is it really self-developed?

Just before the press conference, Jiwei.com also interviewed Jiang Bo, senior director of OPPO chip products, who gave a detailed account of the story behind this chip...

6nm advanced process, dedicated NPU for imaging

"This is OPPO's first independently designed and developed NPU chip for imaging. It is also the world's first dedicated NPU chip for imaging. It uses AI technology to solve the imaging problems of traditional mobile phones." Jiang Bo announced at the press conference that Mariana MariSilicon X is the opening work of OPPO's imaging in the next ten years. Its launch marks the first time that OPPO has achieved full-link vertical integration in the field of computing imaging, and will fully serve OPPO's customized computing imaging needs. In the future, Mariana MariSilicon X will form the left and right brains of the core computing of mobile phones together with the general platform, officially opening the era of 'one machine, two cores'.

Judging from the official data, the chip has very high specifications. The author summarizes and finds at least five major features that are eye-catching:

1. 6nm advanced process: Using TSMC's 6nm process, it can effectively support the best energy efficiency ratio in its class, including complex algorithm processing on RAW;

2. Extreme power consumption ratio: The chip has an AI computing power of 18TOPs, which exceeds that of Apple A15; the energy efficiency is 11.6TOPs/w, and the speed of running OPPO AI noise reduction model is 20 times that of Find X3 Pro (Snapdragon 888), and the energy efficiency is 40 times;

3. Industry-leading 20-bit HDR: Thanks to OPPO's self-developed MariLumi®️ image processing unit, Mariana MariSilicon X supports up to 20-bit Ultra HDR at the human eye level, covering a maximum brightness range of 1 million:1, which is 4 times the current industry mainstream HDR capability (Snapdragon 8, Dimensity 9000);

4. Real-time RAW calculation: Supports 20-bit RAW calculation, pushing the calculation that can only be completed in the YUV domain to the forefront, outputting high-quality data after lossless calculation for the entire imaging link, which can improve the basic image quality;

5. RGBW Pro: Mariana® MariSilicon X takes full advantage of the greater capabilities of RGBW, achieving an 8.6dB signal-to-noise ratio and 1.7 times higher resolution through dual-link design and 2x RAW calculation.

Although OPPO has a lot of money and materials, it is still a terminal company and this is its first time making chips. Many people outside still question whether it is truly self-developed?

In-depth self-research! It took more than 2 years from IP algorithm to tape-out

"OPPO is serious about chip manufacturing!" This is the industry voice that the author has previously heard in the supply chain.

In fact, in recent years, many terminal companies have claimed to be involved in the upstream, but in fact, they are more of joint customized chips. Looking at domestic mobile phone manufacturers, Huawei's self-developed chip strength is obvious to all, but apart from Huawei, few terminal brand manufacturers are involved. In particular, various manufacturers claim to be self-developed, but in fact, the main hardware and software are still dominated by chip companies, and terminal companies are more just providing scenarios and test data, and many key technologies are in cooperation with third parties.

So is OPPO really making chips this time? In the interview, Jiang Bo gave a positive answer.

Looking back at the nearly two years since the project was launched, all aspects, from front-end design, back-end design, to IP design, memory architecture, ARM CPU design, algorithms, supply chain tape-out, etc., have been completed by the OPPO chip design team, which includes the design team, digital verification team, and back-end integration team. It can be said that Mariana MariSilicon X has achieved a deep coupling between OPPO's self-developed algorithms and OPPO's self-developed chips.

If chips are a field with high investment and unknown returns, then chip research and development is as difficult as walking on a tightrope. As for chip manufacturing, Jiang Bo believes that Mariana MariSilicon X's self-developed multiple core IPs and successful tape-out at one time "requires not only the company's experience and capabilities, but also a bit of luck."

Chip-making conspiracy: Breaking through "homogeneity"

In addition to the story behind independent research and development, everyone must be curious about why OPPO wants to develop a self-developed chip? Why is the first chip dedicated to imaging?

As Jiang Bo said, current general-purpose chips cannot meet the computing power and energy efficiency requirements of AI for computing images. If OPPO wants to achieve its own imaging goals, it must maximize the problem of computing power and energy efficiency through the form of self-developed dedicated NPU. Under the current AI algorithms and process technology, if OPPO wants to deepen its imaging through self-developed NPU, it must use a dedicated imaging-specific NPU to maximize the computing power of AI algorithms.

In addition to what Jiang Bo said about OPPO's deep involvement in imaging, the author believes that OPPO's continuous move upstream actually reflects the serious homogeneity of the current smartphone supply chain.

Looking at the industry, the homogeneity of smartphones is very serious in terms of appearance, functions and configuration. With the maturity of technology, mobile phone manufacturers are no longer limited to crazy "piling up" or price wars. How to differentiate competition through hardware innovation has become the top priority for mobile phone manufacturers.

The confidence in chip investment may also come from the success it has experienced in flash charging.

In 2014, OPPO took the lead in launching the VOOC flash charging technology supported by its self-developed power management chip; in October 2019, OPPO Reno Ace was officially equipped with 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 super flash charging technology, which is also the fastest charging technology in mass production. The support of self-developed flash charging technology has allowed OPPO to take the lead in the mobile phone market, and this technology has also led the industry development trend of mobile phone flash charging.

Chip-making vision: building integrated competitiveness of software, hardware and services

At this point, some readers may still wonder whether OPPO has considered commercial profits when producing chips with such high specifications and high costs?

In fact, for mobile phone manufacturers, self-developed chips are indeed a considerable investment, especially MariSilicon X based on DSA architecture and 6nm advanced process. If there is no certain shipment volume, it will put great pressure on costs.

In response, Jiang Bo replied: "I don't need to consider the cost. As a vertical manufacturer, OPPO has always believed that computational imaging is an important direction, and general-purpose SoCs cannot effectively solve the pain points and problems faced by the current industry. Therefore, if this chip can help us solve some user pain points, it is worth investing in."

In fact, OPPO has a long-term plan behind spending so much effort on chips.

As early as the OPPO Future Technology Conference 2019, OPPO founder and CEO Chen Mingyong expressed that OPPO must have the belief of "ten years to sharpen a sword" and have the courage to move into the "deep waters" of research and development.

In 2019, with the establishment of OPPO's self-developed chip team, it proposed an integrated strategy of "software, hardware and services", and its R&D investment continued to increase. In the same year, OPPO invested 10 billion yuan in R&D expenses and announced that it would continue to invest 50 billion yuan in R&D expenses within three years starting from 2020.

At present, after smartphones entered a stable period, the market tended to be saturated, and consumers' demands for smartphones also shifted from hardware to services. Mobile phone manufacturers not only need to improve their hardware technology internally, but also need to keep pace with the extension layout of the related industrial chain.

In fact, OPPO has launched a multi-terminal layout strategy in the past two years. In early 2019, the "Emerging Mobile Terminal Business Unit" was established, focusing on the layout of 5G+ and IoT platforms, and successively launched the true wireless headset OPPO Enco Free, OPPO Watch and 5G CPE, as well as smart TVs and other terminals.

Horizontal and vertical development and a multi-terminal future will allow OPPO to hold multiple chips and increase more business and market space.

Chip manufacturing is not an easy task. Standing in the era of technological changes such as 5G, AI, cloud computing, IoT, and domestic substitution, OPPO is making great strides from a former mobile phone manufacturer to a technology company based on its industry advantages of integrated software, hardware and services. The release of MariSilicon X, the first self-developed chip, also proved to the outside world that "OPPO is not just a company that makes mobile phones."