In the market for chips that would be needed for the new age mobile communication technology 5G, United States based chip maker Qualcomm already has a clear lead when compared to other chipmakers even though the roll out of 5G tech is still in its initial stages.
Currently, a Qualcomm modem powers almost every 5G enabled smartphone that is available in the market today.
However that dominance in the 5G space is most likely to be challenged by MediaTek with its next high-end mobile chip. This is compounded by recent allegations against Qualcomm that it had violated antitrust laws.
According to claims by MediaTek, its upcoming SoC (system-on-a-chip, AKA processor) is the “world’s first fully-integrated 7 nanometer 5G SoC” even though the company has not yet named the chip officially. The company hopes that the production of this 5G chip would be able to bring down the costs of 5G handsets and other 5G enabled devices in the near future. That would indeed be an advantage for MediaTek to challenge Qualcomm because all of the newly launched 5G enabled phones come with a hefty starting price tag such as the $1,300 Galaxy S10 5G and $1,150 LG V50 5G.
Additionally, ARM’s recently announced Cortex-A77 CPU and Mali-G77 GPU would for the first time be installed in the MediaTek’s 5G SoC chips. The Cortex -A77 is a follow up to ARM’s A76 CPU. In addition to a newly redesigned architecture, it also features improved efficiency. And this could be the same CPU core that would be seen in Qualcomm’s next flagship chip later this year, estimated on the past releases.
What’s more, the 5G SoC chip from MediaTek would also contain support for camera sensors with up to 80-MP resolutions as well as an increased speed for AI processing because of the chip’s third-gen APU.
For now, the features and specs of MediaTek’s 5G SoC look very good to rival those of Qualcomm even though te manner in which it would perform in the real market remained to be seen.
According to the claims of MediaTek, the latest developed chips of the company would be able to download speeds of 4.2 Gbps and uploads speeds of up to 2.5 Gbps which would be very good for 5G technology. But some experts claim that there is one issue of concern for this new chip of MediaTek because it is only able to support 5G on the sub-6GHz and 2.5-GHz bands which have integrated modems. This means that MediaTek’s chip isn’t really an option for US telecom companies such as AT&T and Verizon because they make use mmWave frequencies on its 5G network. 5G modems and their antennas often need to be tuned for a specific set of radio frequencies in order to deliver optimal data speeds.
But given the constraints for this new chip by MediaTek, it is certainly set upend the 5G chip industry because there are just a few companies in the world that have the capacity to even make 5G-ready chips and SoCs and be a real challenge to the dominance of Qualcomm.
(Source:www.gizmodo.com)
Currently, a Qualcomm modem powers almost every 5G enabled smartphone that is available in the market today.
However that dominance in the 5G space is most likely to be challenged by MediaTek with its next high-end mobile chip. This is compounded by recent allegations against Qualcomm that it had violated antitrust laws.
According to claims by MediaTek, its upcoming SoC (system-on-a-chip, AKA processor) is the “world’s first fully-integrated 7 nanometer 5G SoC” even though the company has not yet named the chip officially. The company hopes that the production of this 5G chip would be able to bring down the costs of 5G handsets and other 5G enabled devices in the near future. That would indeed be an advantage for MediaTek to challenge Qualcomm because all of the newly launched 5G enabled phones come with a hefty starting price tag such as the $1,300 Galaxy S10 5G and $1,150 LG V50 5G.
Additionally, ARM’s recently announced Cortex-A77 CPU and Mali-G77 GPU would for the first time be installed in the MediaTek’s 5G SoC chips. The Cortex -A77 is a follow up to ARM’s A76 CPU. In addition to a newly redesigned architecture, it also features improved efficiency. And this could be the same CPU core that would be seen in Qualcomm’s next flagship chip later this year, estimated on the past releases.
What’s more, the 5G SoC chip from MediaTek would also contain support for camera sensors with up to 80-MP resolutions as well as an increased speed for AI processing because of the chip’s third-gen APU.
For now, the features and specs of MediaTek’s 5G SoC look very good to rival those of Qualcomm even though te manner in which it would perform in the real market remained to be seen.
According to the claims of MediaTek, the latest developed chips of the company would be able to download speeds of 4.2 Gbps and uploads speeds of up to 2.5 Gbps which would be very good for 5G technology. But some experts claim that there is one issue of concern for this new chip of MediaTek because it is only able to support 5G on the sub-6GHz and 2.5-GHz bands which have integrated modems. This means that MediaTek’s chip isn’t really an option for US telecom companies such as AT&T and Verizon because they make use mmWave frequencies on its 5G network. 5G modems and their antennas often need to be tuned for a specific set of radio frequencies in order to deliver optimal data speeds.
But given the constraints for this new chip by MediaTek, it is certainly set upend the 5G chip industry because there are just a few companies in the world that have the capacity to even make 5G-ready chips and SoCs and be a real challenge to the dominance of Qualcomm.
(Source:www.gizmodo.com)
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