Recently, the war of words between Apple and Qualcomm has become fierce, and Intel has also been involved. Apple’s newly released iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max resolutely abandoned Qualcomm’s baseband chips and instead used Intel’s baseband chips. Qualcomm was very upset and accused Apple of stealing its technical secrets to help Intel improve chip performance. Apple and Intel denied it.
For a time, whether it was the chip circle or the mobile phone circle, this became the hottest news. We are not afraid of big things, we all sit in rows on small benches and watch the theater!
This is the profession that I, a "Huawei veteran," has engaged in over the past two decades. I take this opportunity to talk about the gossip in it.
The birth of the wireless queen and Qualcomm
The story starts with a beautiful woman during World War II. Her name is Hedy Lamarr (November 9, 1914-January 19, 2000), who was born in Vienna, the capital of Austria. She is a Jew.
Wireless Goddess Wireless Goddess Heidi Rama
When she was 16 years old, she studied communications engineering at the university. However, because she was too beautiful, bold and rebellious, she quickly entered the show business circle. At the age of 18, she made the first ever female nude movie "Ecstasy".
After becoming popular, she married into a wealthy family. The first husband, Mandel, was an Austrian manufacturer of military equipment, and the customer was the Axis country during World War II. The beginning of the story is just like our beloved tertiary porn star Ye Yuqing, but the more unexpected it goes.
Everyone regards her as a vase, discussing various technical secrets without obstruction. In this way, with a background in communications, she quietly learned about the communications technology used by the Nazis in a faint smile. Traditional radios always use the same frequency and are prone to interference. Heidi realized with foresight that changing the frequency of radio waves constantly and arbitrarily can prevent the occurrence of signal jams, thereby effectively preventing enemy interference and tracking.
The persecution of Jews by the Nazis became widespread, and Heidi decided to flee. One day in 1937, Heidi withdrew in the middle of the dinner due to physical discomfort. She stunned the maid with drugs, jumped out of the window, and fled to Paris overnight by train that day, and then to London.
Here, she met the boss of MGM Studios, signed a low-cost film contract, and came to the rising Hollywood to continue her acting career.
Despite being a famous "porn star", Heidi still loves technology and "doesn't change his original aspiration"! She invented the "Cola Effervescent Tablet", which can make it easier for soldiers in World War II to drink Coke.
She met the musician George Ansel. At first, the conversation between them was about "breast augmentation", and then somehow went into the field of radio communication.
Heidi and Ansel realized the "frequency hopping technology" based on the principle of playing the piano synchronously, using frequency hopping to expand the communication capacity and encrypt information. In 1942, Heidi and Ansel obtained a patent for a secret communication system issued by the U.S. Patent Office, numbered 2,292,387. They donated this patent to the US government, hoping to use it on the battlefield of World War II to block the Nazis.
Heidi and Ansel's patent application drawings
However, this technology was only used during the Cold War after World War II (commercially by Hoffman).
In the latter part of the Cold War, the U.S. military disclosed many military technologies to the outside world to achieve dual use for both military and civilian use. The development of transistors has made the realization of "frequency hopping" technology easier, and the frequency synchronization method has also realized the transformation from mechanical to electronic. "Military conversion" has spawned a large number of high-tech companies, many on the west coast.
In 1985, in San Diego, a little-known company, Qualcomm, was established. Its name was the abbreviation of Quality Communication. At first, the entire company was just an office above a pizzeria.
Seven founding partners including former MIT professor Irwin Mark Jacobs will successfully use the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology developed on the "spread spectrum technology" for commercial cellular Communication network, and holds major patents. Later it claimed to have 1,400 related patents.
On the right, Andrew Viterbi is known as the "father of CDMA." We also use an algorithm called Viterbi decoding in GSM, which is said to be related to him.
In 1994, the world's first CDMA commercial mobile communication network was operated in Hong Kong, China, Hutchison Telecom, but the effect was not good. The first one was usually a guinea pig. However, CDMA has developed since then and finally successfully commercialized in South Korea, reaching 1 million subscribers in 1996. Samsung started from then and entered the field of mobile communications. There is a saying: Qualcomm invented CDMA, but South Korea saved the life of CDMA. CDMA entered the field of mobile communications and was the first to be commercialized in Asia. Chinese-American Dr. Jianye Li played an indispensable role in this process.
The fledgling Yu Chengdong was the first to notice this technology in Huawei. One day, he used someone else's phone to call Ren Zhengfei and said excitedly: Boss, Boss, I discovered a new technology called CDMA! The next day, the President’s Office called back: Who was the flabbergast yesterday?
Lei Ming, who provided effective help in Qualcomm's first $200,000 contract in 1987 (then the technical director of Laura), later served as the president of Qualcomm Greater China, and finally brought CDMA into the huge market of China. Lei Ming wrote an article in IT Times Weekly, "Qualcomm CDMA Enters China's Domestic Scene", which described the twists and turns of CDMA's entry into China and the toughness of old Jacobs.
Lei Ming knows that if CDMA wants to enter China, it has to cooperate with China-US relations and the negotiations on China's accession to the WTO at that time. If you can't take advantage of this opportunity, even the best CDMA technology is useless. Therefore, the strategy of "IS-95 Now" was developed to push mature and cheap IS-95 technology, instead of pushing 1x technology, which is immature although the profit will be higher. For this unified strategy, Qualcomm's headquarters held a CDMA "Oathtaking Conference" in China. The slogan of the conference was "IS-95 Now".
Therefore, Huawei bet on 1x technology and lost everything, while ZTE’s IS-95 made a lot of money.
Old Jacob has a tough personality, and other founders have withdrawn one after another. The third son Paul Jacob inherited his mantle, and he was called little Jacob. At the turn of the century, I was fortunate enough to meet Jacob and his son in Guangzhou. However, this year Paul also went off the wild, which is said to be related to his unwillingness to sell Qualcomm to Broadcom (headquartered in Singapore) at the proposal of the shareholders meeting. This transaction has been rejected by the US government.
CDMA technology can not only be used for confidential communication, but also can expand the utilization rate of the spectrum and greatly improve efficiency. Therefore, several mainstream 3G standards, whether WCDMA, CDMA2000, or TD-SCDMA, are all based on CDMA code division multiple access technology.
In 1997, when CDMA-based communication technology began to enter mass life on a large scale, the scientific community only thought of Heidi. The Electronic Frontier Foundation of America awarded Heidi Rama, the first applicant for this patent fifty years ago, with the "Electronic Frontier Fund-Pioneer Award". Scientists respectfully call Heidi the "Mother of CDMA". At that time, she was 83 years old and was said to be working hard to "face up".
Later, Heidi's son Anthony Loder filmed a documentary "Calling Hedy Lamarr" to commemorate her mother.
Her invention is the theoretical basis of CDMA technology, which is carried forward in 2G and 3G, and LTE in WIFI and 4G is also in the same line. GPS global satellite positioning is also said to be related to this theory.
Qualcomm has inherited her mantle perfectly and carried forward to become the largest mobile communication patent owner. Qualcomm's Antonio (Antonio Franklin) said: "She has a very amazing patent. People usually don't think that movie stars have any brains, but she does."
Throughout her life, she did not get any benefits from this epoch-making technology.
Few people in the showbiz still remember her. People in the communication circle never forget.
AP and BP of smartphone
The core of the smart phone chip solution is two pieces: AP and BP.
AP is ApplicaTIon Processor (application processor), which mainly includes CPU (central processing unit) and GPU (graphics processing unit), and what neural network and artificial intelligence are there recently. At present, all CPUs in smartphones are based on the ARM architecture (a reduced instruction system) of Cambridge, UK. The CPU in Huawei's Kirin chip is also authorized by Arm. How many Hz do we hear about the main frequency, as well as four cores and eight cores, all refer to this. Intel took advantage of the x86 architecture (complex command system CISC) that swept the world on PCs, and launched a CPU (Atom Atom) that specializes in the mobile market. It was once popular on Netbooks, but eventually lost to ARM. .
In April 2017, Sun Zhengyi's SoftBank of Japan acquired Arm and privatized it at a price of US$31 billion.
BP stands for Baseband Processor, which is responsible for processing various communication protocols, such as GSM, 3/4/5G, etc. Generally speaking, the baseband is the processing of various communication protocols of 2G/3G/4G/5G, which realizes the connection between the mobile phone and the base station. Of course, the baseband must be used with the SIM card. A mobile phone without communication capability is just an MP4. With the evolution and complexity of communication technology, designing a baseband processor becomes more and more difficult. The level of baseband processing capability directly determines the strength of the mobile phone's signal processing capability. The Internet speed will reflect the quality and the sound quality.
The baseband chip is the commanding height, and even determines life and death. During the transition from 3G to 4G, chip manufacturers such as TI, Broadcom, and Marvell were eliminated from the mobile phone market due to uncompetitive baseband chips, while Qualcomm took the lead in the mobile chip market with baseband chips.
The current mobile phone baseband chip market is mainly Qualcomm, Intel, Samsung, Huawei, MediaTek, Spreadtrum, etc. Among them, Qualcomm remains a leader in this field, especially in the 3G era, Qualcomm dominates the world by virtue of its strong patent portfolio in the 3G field. In the 4G and upcoming 5G era, although Qualcomm is no longer the only one, it is still very strong.
The following is the market share by amount. But in terms of quantity, Spreadtrum (Zhanrui Unigroup) believes that its baseband shipments are second only to Qualcomm and MediaTek.
How does Qualcomm "collect taxes" and why does Apple resist?
Since the 2G CDMA era, Qualcomm has been pursuing full-process fees. The base station must be collected, and the mobile phone must also be collected, and the charging method has been controversial, but it is "infatuated not to change."
Qualcomm's patents are only related to BP (baseband processing), but Qualcomm requires a certain percentage of the price of the whole machine to be charged. In other words, if you install a high-end camera on your mobile phone, the selling price of the mobile phone will eventually increase, and you will have to pay more money to Qualcomm, and the camera technology has nothing to do with Qualcomm.
In the 2G era, GSM led by Europe and CDMA led by Qualcomm conducted a century-long PK. However, because of the above-mentioned charging methods, the CDMA mobile phone industry chain has not developed well. And because most of the patents of GSM have expired, mobile phones are getting cheaper and more diverse.
In 2006, MediaTek’s GSM Turnkey soluTIon solution was launched. Both hardware and software will give you a package solution. Shanzhai’s GSM feature phone (conventional button mobile phone) industry has risen rapidly, and three people can make a mobile phone, which is why Shenzhen’s alias "Zhaidu" is named. This has become "the last straw that crushes the camel". In the 2G field, the European GSM camp has surpassed the American CDMA camp.
But Qualcomm did not suffer much. From 2G to 3G, the three mainstream 3G standards, WCDMA, CDMA2000, and TDS-SCDMA (promoted by China), are all based on the basic technology of CDMA and must pay "Qualcomm Tax"!
At the turn of the century, some European operators obtained 3G licenses at high prices, but they became synonymous with "Girl, Gun, Gamble". They were ridiculed as using 3G to "walk against the wall and drive against the tree", but did not find the "killer applicaTIon". Killer business". It wasn't until Apple defined the smartphone and application market in 2007 that 3G finally found a profit model. Mobile users have begun to explode, and almost everyone has a smart phone, and the unit price is getting higher and higher. Qualcomm's "tax collection" received softness! Huawei, Xiaomi, VIVO and OPPO of smartphones all pay "royalty" to Qualcomm.
In addition to the above-mentioned technology licensing (QTL), Qualcomm's revenue also has semiconductor chip (QCT) business. Licensing business accounts for 30% of revenue, but 70% of profits.
Qualcomm's mobile phone chips are very strong, and its unique ability is in baseband processing. The reason is also well understood, because Qualcomm has always invested heavily in wireless technology research and has many cutting-edge research results, which will be the first to use on its own chips to gain advanced technological advantages.
Qualcomm's chips are sold in large quantities in China, and Huawei has been using them. It is understood that Qualcomm is not hoping to make much money from chips, but to block new opponents from entering this field. According to legend in the mobile phone industry, Qualcomm's marketing strategy of buying baseband (BP) and giving CPU (that is, AP) has become the industry leader.
In recent years, Qualcomm and Datang have established a joint venture to develop low-end chips, which made Ziguang Zhao Weiguo nervous for a while.
Qualcomm's largest customer and market are in China. In 2015, he was fined RMB 6.088 billion because he achieved a “dominant†position and caused a “monopolyâ€. Before, Qualcomm was fined in the European Union, South Korea and other places.
Qualcomm's position has not been shaken by this. Some people say that the overlord of the PC era is Intel, so the overlord of the smartphone era is Qualcomm.
Fourth-rate companies sell hard work (foundry), third-rate companies sell products (complete machines), second-rate companies sell technology (chips and IP), and first-rate companies sell patents (license fees). Qualcomm has done both first-rate and second-rate jobs at the same time!
Apple’s mobile phones are the most expensive and they pay the most licensing fees. Apple, the number one in the universe, has long complained about Qualcomm's charging based on the price of the whole machine. Cook has stated many times that the functions of smartphones are becoming more and more abundant, and communication is only one of them. Qualcomm's technology patents are only related to baseband processors. The patent fee should be based on the supply price of baseband processors, not by smartphones. The price of the whole machine will be collected. So in 2017, the unbearable Apple initiated a lawsuit against Qualcomm!
Apple’s mobile phones have always used an ARM-based application processor (AP) designed by itself, but the baseband chip (BP) used has always been outsourced.
Intel has its own baseband, but it was sold to Marvell in 2006, and it perfectly missed the supply of Apple's iPhone. In order to make up for the mistake, in 2010 it spent 1.4 billion US dollars to acquire the German chip giant Infineon's Wireless Solutions Division, because Apple's iPhone used Infineon's baseband in the early days. But beginning in 2012, Apple still chose the Qualcomm baseband processor with more advantageous performance.
After the Verizon version of iPhone 4, the baseband of the iPhone product line has been changed from Intel (derived from Infineon) to Qualcomm. If 4 (using Qualcomm's MDM6610), fruit 5 (using Qualcomm's MDM9615) and fruit 6 (using Qualcomm) MDM9625).
Apple is advancing by leaps and bounds. Qualcomm not only charges patent licensing fees, but also makes a lot of money from baseband chips sold to Apple.
However, as Apple has grown stronger, its dissatisfaction with Qualcomm has grown, and new actions have been taken.
In the Apple iPhone7 released in 2016, some mobile phones use Qualcomm's baseband X12, which can reach a network speed of 600Mbps, and the other part uses a baseband XMM 3360 from Intel, with a maximum network speed of only 450Mbp. In order to balance the relationship between the two, Apple has imposed performance restrictions on them so that the two can be consistent in performance.
In 2017, Apple 8 adopted two basebands, Intel baseband XMM 7480 and Qualcomm's MDM9655 baseband (supporting X16 LTE, the performance is also different, Apple also adopted the same balance strategy.
In 2018, Apple’s newly released iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max have undergone dramatic changes, resolutely abandoning all Qualcomm baseband units and instead adopting all Intel baseband units.
This is indeed a good way to draw a salary from the bottom of the tank, by greatly reducing Qualcomm's chip revenue to force Qualcomm to make concessions on patent licensing fees.
Unfortunately, starting from iPhone 7, Intel's baseband unit has always been somewhat weaker than Qualcomm. It is said that the signal processing capability of Apple's new mobile phone is not strong enough, the Internet is slow, and the sound quality is poor. Fruit fans have complained. (It is also said that antenna design is also one of the causes of the problem.)
Apple's move can indeed make Qualcomm's chip turnover drop a lot, how can the boss of Qualcomm bear this tone. In September 2018, Qualcomm formally filed an accusation with the California Supreme Court, accusing Apple of stealing its chip secrets to help Intel improve chip performance. Qualcomm believes that Apple's ultimate goal is to raise the level of Intel products to the level of Qualcomm, so that Apple has two suppliers to choose from, and gain "fisherman's benefit" from the fight between the two companies. The two companies hold their own words, and it is very lively.
However, the lawsuit is a lawsuit, and Qualcomm is really reluctant to lose Apple. CEO Steve Mollenkopf confidently stated in an interview with the Bloomberg show host that he believes that Apple will return to Qualcomm in the near future. !
The story between Apple and Intel
This is another story of ups and downs.
Noyce, who founded Intel, is the inventor of integrated circuits. For many years, Intel has existed in Silicon Valley tepidly.
In the Apple II computer released in 1977, Jobs also considered using Intel’s 8080, but each chip was “more expensive than my monthly rent†(Jobs’ evaluation). Jobs’ technical partner Ezniak was still working at HP at the time, and through a friend he could get a Motorola 6800 for $40 each. Apple later got a CPU with the same performance as Motorola from MOS Technology (6502 microprocessor with 1 MHz clock speed) for only $20 each. Several trade-offs, use the cheapest one!
Apple II computers are the most successful personal computers in history, with a total of 5-6 million units sold, many of which have entered the Chinese market. I have been to Meiya Pico. When the founder Teng Da was a teenager, his family bought him the popular Apple II at the time. He started to learn computer programming from here. I envied him very much. At that time, my family was reluctant to buy me cakes. In 1988, I touched an IBM compatible PC for the first time in the middle school computer room and wrote the first program: a triangle was displayed on the screen.
However, because the PC compatible machine advocated by IBM in the 1980s adopted Intel chips, it became a global industry standard. With the rapid development of IBM compatible computers, Intel and Microsoft have also become popular.
Since then, the status of Apple's PC has plummeted, and it has been dismantled by numerous IBM PC-compatible machines.
In 1985, Jobs was kicked out of the Apple he founded, and he was depressed. Noyce, who retired from Intel, became his life mentor. Jobs often showed up at Noyce's door without saying hello, and called Noyce at midnight because of an idea.
Noyce also invited Jobs to take his "Seabee" seaplane out to relax. Once, the seaplane was about to land on the lake, but it accidentally locked the plane's tires. When Noyce had to land on the runway, the plane almost turned over and the two survived.
In 1996, Jobs got out of trouble. Apple bought the NeXT company he founded. Jobs returned to Apple amidst the cheers of 250 employees at Apple headquarters.
The iMAC launched in 1998 uses the Power Mac G3 processor. This series of CPUs are jointly designed and manufactured by several large companies such as IBM and Motorola for Apple computers. In terms of graphics and image processing, they are faster than contemporary Intel CPUs and have unique advantages. Therefore, Apple computers have always been graphics images in people's minds. Synonymous with professional applications.
Steve Jobs once said to Motorola’s Galvin: Motorola’s chip sucks! Galvin, a descendant of Motorola's founder, immediately refuted. After Steve Jobs hung up the phone, he secretly planned to abandon the Motorola/IBM PowerPC chip and embrace Intel. This process is not easy and means that the entire operating system has to be rewritten. Within a six-month period, Apple finally completed the chip switch. In 2005, "Apple and Intel finally came together", Apple began to use Intel's processor (X86), and it has been used on the PC ever since.
For the rapid development of smart terminals, Intel can't help but make an Atom CPU (Atom, meaning atom) that focuses on mobile devices. In 2008, the Netbook had instant brilliance. I was also moved by it. I went to Fa Yuen Street in Hong Kong. I bought an ACER netbook in the noisy electronic market. After I turned it on and used it twice, it was put on the shelf!
The decline of Intel's Atom began with Apple's iPhone decision.
In 2007, Apple obtained a framework license from Cambridge's ARM on its first iPhone. ARM is based on Reduced Instructions (RISC), which is simpler and consumes less power than Intel's Complex Instructions (CISC). Apple also acquired PASemi, a CPU design company, and customized a system chip-A4, which was manufactured by Samsung's foundry. However, the foundry of Apple's "core" has already used the more advanced technology of TSMC. The process of TSMC and Samsung competing for Apple's orders is another wonderful story.
Since then, Apple has started its self-developed AP (application processor) A series. The era of Apple's own "core" has since set sail.
During this process, Apple also extended an olive branch to Intel. Jobs took a colorful iPhone PPT and asked Intel to develop a CPU based on the ARM architecture for it. At the time, Intel CEO Otellini thought that this PPT phone was difficult to mass produce, and that the chip design and production investment was huge, so he rejected the door-to-door business. As a result, iPhone sales are at least 100 times as many as Otellini predicted!
The situation is difficult, "Jobs Biography" wrote that in the later selection of the CPU of the iPAD tablet, Jobs once supported Intel, but the management threatened to resign, and Jobs finally compromised.
But Apple's baseband, that is, the chip that handles the mobile communication protocol, has always been outsourced.
China "Core" for mobile phones
As early as 2006, Taiwan’s MediaTek led by Cai Mingjie made a package delivery plan for GSM mobile phones including baseband, and was known as the "father of knockoffs." Since then, MediaTek has been one of the mainstream mobile phone chip companies.
Spreadtrum (now Ziguang Zhanrui) followed the climate and also made the GSM TK program. In 2009, China issued a 3G license, and China Mobile used TD-SCDMA technology. Because Camin went bankrupt before dawn, Spreadtrum, as the only GSM/TD-SCDMA mobile phone chip supplier at the time, made a lot of money. Spreadtrum has since become one of the mainstream mobile phone chip suppliers. Ziguang Zhanrui is the world's tenth largest chip designer (HiSilicon is the seventh largest).
In 2014, Xiaomi Songguo was established. Lei Jun said: Making chips is a life of nine deaths, and we will do it with the mentality of one billion investment and a ten-year research and development cycle. In 2017, Pengbai S1 came out. The most interesting thing is that the baseband part of S1 can be upgraded. Xiaomi's partner Lin Bin is the senior of the Department of Electronics of Sun Yat-sen University where I am a graduate student.
Companies such as ZTE, Shanghai ASR (ASR), and Shanghai Lianxin also have baseband products. It remains to be seen how the future develops.
Now, the representative of China Chips-Huawei-is here!
Some time ago, the "5G" standard voting items were once screened.
China has no patents in the 1G and 2G fields. In the 3G era, the TD-SCDMA standard has been successfully promoted with the power of the whole country, and it has entered the room in the field of mobile communication standards. This is the G3 business that China Mobile has been criticized by the people. What everyone does not know is how much hardship China Mobile has put in to achieve commercial success!
In recent years, the polar code promoted by Huawei has written the 5G standard on the control channel coding, and has begun a new era of entering the mainstream technical standard makers.
Since the development of GSM base stations in 1996, after more than 20 years of hard work, Huawei and Qualcomm can finally have a cup of coffee together.
This is a breakthrough in the history of China's communications. Chinese operators and all users have worked tirelessly for it. Remember China Mobile's "G3"?
In 2009, Huawei developed the GSM baseband and used it in the GSM smart TK mobile phone solution using K3V1 AP. Unfortunately, Huawei's GSM smart TK mobile phone solution soon died.
The early death of "Hisilicon" cottage phone HX1168
Huawei and ZTE sell a large number of 3G data cards in Europe, but only Qualcomm is a chip supplier.
After being ravaged by constraints, Huawei launched the development of a pure 3G baseband chip-Barong, which was launched in 2010. As of today, in many tests, Huawei's baseband capabilities and Qualcomm's baseband capabilities are no different.
Huawei's Kirin mobile phone chip integrates the AP (application processor) based on the ARM architecture and the self-developed Barong baseband into one, making it in the same chip. Barong has built the core competitiveness of Huawei's Kirin SoC mobile phone chip.
New features such as 7nm, GPU Turbo, AI artificial intelligence, and neural networks have swarmed, making Kirin mobile phone chips the core competitiveness of Huawei's high-end mobile phones. Of course not for external sales, only for personal use, the fertilizer will not flow to outsiders' fields!
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