In the midst of the "chip shortage" craze, when will domestic mobile processors be able to truly catch up?

In the past six months, "chip shortage" has become the most talked-about event in the global technology community.

Due to geography, the epidemic and other reasons, many Asian OEM manufacturers have shifted their chip manufacturing from the original US IDM integrated foundry model to the Asian Foundry foundry model led by TSMC in Taiwan Province of my country. As a result, these chip foundries are facing far more frenetic foundry demand than ever before, and the original production capacity is naturally unable to meet customer requirements, causing the technology industry to face a serious "chip shortage" problem.

Another thing that has an equally strong influence is that due to the US ban, Huawei Kirin was forced to stop the manufacture of advanced process chips, resulting in the main mobile phone manufacturers in the market in my country can only choose chips from Qualcomm in the United States and MediaTek, a Taiwanese company.

This is a huge risk for my country's mobile phone industry. If a mobile phone manufacturer is included in the US sanctions list, it will basically face the shock of "no chips available".

So in such a "bloody" period, can other domestic mobile processor companies seize the opportunity to catch up with the world's top chip companies in technology?

Domestic mobile processor industry has gone from difficulties to dawn

For an industry that relies solely on technological research and development capabilities, it is like a fantasy for a company that is originally at a disadvantage to achieve "overtaking on a curve".

The backward situation of many domestic mobile processor manufacturers in the industry is not a one-time thing. It is closely related to their long-standing shortcomings and lags in various aspects.

Although my country's mobile processor industry has faced various difficulties in the past, as practitioners have carried out solid research and development step by step, the difficulties of my country's mobile processors in the past have been gradually overcome.

This is not only because of the increased strength of related chip companies themselves, but also because the turbulent global political landscape in recent years has had a significant impact on them.

When it comes to chip manufacturing, the only chip foundry in mainland China that can come up with something impressive is SMIC. However, compared with TSMC in Taiwan and Samsung in South Korea, its process technology lags behind obviously.

Under the same chip design capabilities, more advanced process technology can greatly improve chip performance, reduce chip power consumption, and provide better battery life.

Therefore, if domestic chip design companies want to use advanced processes to mass-produce chips, they can only seek assistance from TSMC or Samsung. However, TSMC and Samsung face giant customers such as Qualcomm and Apple, and it is difficult for small chip companies to get a number. As a result, domestic chip design companies are at a disadvantage in the mass production stage.

Although mainland chip foundries led by SMIC have made slow progress in process technology in the past, with the chip boom in recent years and the addition of key figure Liang Mengsong, SMIC's resources and R&D levels have been "immediately" improved.

Not long ago, SMIC announced that the 12nm process technology based on the improved 14nm has begun mass production. At the same time, the 7nm process, which is close to the international first-line level, has also entered the risk trial production stage.

SMIC's process news shows that mainland my country's chip foundry capabilities have been greatly improved.

This is a blessing for companies that have been facing problems with outdated process technology, which has prevented them from completely letting go of chip design and boldly adopting the latest technology for mass production.

In the future, there will be more entry-level domestic mobile processors manufactured using the 12nm process on the market, which marks the beginning of domestic mobile processors gradually penetrating the mobile phone market.

Concept change: from low market acceptance to supporting domestic supply chain

In addition to capabilities and resources, another major problem facing domestic chip design companies is low market recognition. Even for products of the same level, customers are more inclined to choose products from big-name manufacturers such as Qualcomm when purchasing.

This reason for selection, which has nothing to do with the product itself, causes domestic chip manufacturers to lose "unclearly" when facing international manufacturers.

The main reason is that there are too many products to choose from in the market, and domestic technology manufacturers tend to choose stable and widely used products, and obviously do not have much sense of crisis in supporting the domestic supply chain.

However, with the unreasonable crackdown on Huawei by the United States, HiSilicon was forced to stop production of high-end chips. Although domestic mobile phone manufacturers are still mainly using chips from Qualcomm and TSMC, they are also taking precautions against the United States' "supply cut-off".

Take Xiaomi and OPPO as examples: the former launched the Surge ISP chip this year. Although it is mainly used to assist camera imaging, it also shows that the research and development of the Surge chip has not stopped.

The latter has been reported many times this year to be actively poaching chip designers from TSMC and SMIC and starting to develop its own chips.

However, it will take a long time for these manufacturers' chips to be developed and put into mass production, so the top priority is to choose a chip manufacturer from mainland China as a backup to avoid the risk of US strikes.

Therefore, supporting the domestic supply chain has become something that domestic mobile phone manufacturers must do now.

However, the most important part of a mobile phone is definitely the processor. Therefore, although manufacturers are intentionally supporting the development of the domestic processor industry, if the gap between the chip and the mainstream products on the market is too large, then this "spare chip" is obviously not of much significance.

For example, Unisoc has also seen this opportunity and has just launched a new product brand "Tanggula" for the 5G era, ranging from entry-level to high-end flagship positioning.

Therefore, under the risks of geopolitics, as long as the domestic mobile processors have sufficient capabilities, it will not be difficult for them to be favored by mobile phone manufacturers that were difficult to cooperate with in the past.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for domestic mobile processors.

As the difficulties faced in the past are gradually overcome one by one, domestic mobile processor manufacturers have entered a period where both the external and internal environments are very friendly.

Next, it depends on how domestic chip manufacturers and terminal manufacturers seize this opportunity.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.