In the future, the global LTE chip competition landscape will become quite complicated. All camp vendors will join the industry of LTE chips. Everyone will be encouraged and will focus on the biggest cake in the future, and some will be subject to the 3G era. The patent monopoly of individual manufacturers and the 2G chip manufacturers that can't exercise their power make LTE the last "new continent" for Dongshan.

According to relevant media, apart from the traditional independent chip manufacturers (including communication chips and non-communication chip manufacturers) all rushing to the LTE market, large-scale machine manufacturers are also doing BB/AP (OFweek Communication International Note: BB: BB It is short for BandwidthBroker, translated as bandwidth proxy; wireless AP: AP is short for AccessPoint, translated as "wireless access node"), or both, typically Apple to do AP, Hass BB and AP to do, ZTE to do BB, Samsung's strong point is AP, but BB should also be commercial immediately. Of course, there are traditional PC chip giants such as Intel and nVidia that have entered into 3G through acquisitions. LTE market. Judging from the current situation, dozens of companies will participate in the LTE chip market. There are many companies that participate in the game, and there may be few wins.

"Single-mode, single-frequency LTE chip vendors will all be a cloud." Weisheng Communications CEO Zhang Ke said to the relevant media, "Obviously, the future of multi-mode, multi-frequency is the mainstream trend. The mainstream mobile phone manufacturers hope that their mobile phones can be sold. Globally, LTE chips must be compatible with FDD/TDD/WCDMA/EVDO/, and at the same time supporting more than a dozen bands, this is a necessary requirement.” So, don’t look for very lively nowadays. "Here, the biggest challenge comes from the RF transceiver RFIC, from the current level of technology, really have the ability to make more than a dozen bands of RFIC manufacturers only four." Zhang Ke said, "The four are Intel ( Acquisition of IFX.) Qualcomm, ST-Ericsson and Fujitsu Microelectronics."

Why are these four? Because manufacturers of RFICs capable of implementing multi-mode and multi-frequency on LTE need to have leading digital RFIC technology, mature CMOS RF technology is required, leading SDR technology and high process integration capability are required. Of course, there must have been successful commercial accumulation on W/G. Just as a Huawei expert pointed out in my microblog, “To communicate, don’t say whether there are technologies or samples. Look at whether there is a mature commercial history. Step by step to accumulate, there is no short cut. It is the end of the year, which is the overall result of the accumulation of technology and team accumulation in the layout of the previous n years.The booster rocket is a huge capital supply.The front of both hands is ready to move on LTE, and now it is too late to think of multi-mode. ”

This is one of the important reasons why Intel spent a lot of money to purchase Infineon's IFX. Infineon's WCDMA digital RFIC is the world's first commercial (in Japan), and has been leading in this field. Qualcomm does not need to explain that STE's digital RFIC technology is largely derived from Silicon Labs, an innovative company in digital RFIC that was first acquired by NXP and then entered the STE with NXP. Fujitsu Microelectronics can be placed in the ranks of this giant, which may make many people quite eat. "This is because Fujitsu Microelectronics has acquired Freescale's RFIC team. In fact, Fujitsu's LTE/3G/2G RFIC has been promoted for more than half a year," a netizen revealed on my Weibo.

Although facing these four major RFIC giants, Zhang Ke said that VIA is also developing its own multi-mode multi-frequency RFICs, which must be done. In terms of LTE baseband, although there are dozens of players, Zhang Ke believes that VIA has a great advantage. This is the competitive advantage that they have consistently won over the years, that is, they have added EVDO to multiple models. To the full FDD/TDD/W/EVDO model, "it has been difficult for companies that have not played CDMA/EVDO before.

He explained, "Because the CDMA/EVDO standards and specifications are very complicated. As for the WCDMA chip, VIA has already appeared, but the media believes that its focus is not on the single-mode W chip, but on the LTE era to achieve "full mode."

However, Zhang Ke said that VIA will not enter the AP market, nor will it be an integrated single chip for BB+AP. "Mobile phone manufacturers need multi-mode BB to support global operators. I have found that global mainstream manufacturers prefer the BB+AP approach, which has been adopted by a number of major mobile phone manufacturers, such as Apple, Samsung, MOTO, etc." BB and AP separation Differentiated requirements can be more flexibly implemented. However, it seems that Chinese mobile phone manufacturers do not think that they prefer the integration of BB and AP. This is a big difference between the values ​​of international mobile phone manufacturers and Chinese mobile phone manufacturers.

Of the dozens of LTE chip players, there is one group that deserves special attention. This means that Samsung, Huawei, ZTE and other mobile phone manufacturers also have to do mobile chip. Samsung previously only worked as an AP. Now it has invested hundreds of people in doing BB, and it will soon be commercial, which will have a greater impact on the entire industry. More than a decade ago, a group of mobile phone chip companies were separated from their parent companies. Most of these separated mobile phone chip companies had no trace. More than a decade later, a group of mobile phone companies began to make their own mobile phone chips. Only the owner of the story changed! This is history! Will history repeat itself? "History always spirals up. Humans do not always remember the lesson." This is a wonderful comment on Weibo. It is worth considering. 4G, an era of crowds and hegemony!