Intel准备全面开放先进工艺给展讯使用以期弯道超车
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看来展讯可能要利用INTEL的先进工艺来猛轰MTK了
Spreadtrum Guns for Intel’s 14nm FinFET in 2016
Junko Yoshida
5/27/2015 00:28 AM EDT
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SHANGHAI, China — Qualcomm and MediaTek, you better watch out. Here comes Spreadtrum, riding piggyback on Intel’s foundry business and gunning for 14nm FinFET, with sights set on 10nm.
China’s Spreadtrum Communications will use Intel Corp.’s 14nm FinFET process technology, for both the low- and high-end mobile chips the company plans to launch in 2016, Leo Li, chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum, told EE Times Tuesday (May 26).
For Spreadtrum, using Intel as its foundry has apparently superseded its potential adoption of Intel Architecture in future mobile chips.
Intel’s $1.5 billion investment in Tsinghua Unigroup last fall resulted in the U.S. chip giant owning 20 percent of China’s combined Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics. Spreadtrum’s quid pro quo for Intel, under the agreement, is a matter of intense speculation among semiconductor industry observers.
Li, during the one-on-one interview, insisted, “I am under no obligation” to use Intel technologies “unless they prove to be competitive on the market.”
Nowhere in a series of agreements the two companies signed last fall is it stipulated that Spreadtrum must switch from ARM-based architecture to Intel Architecture in future chips.
“They can’t force us,” said Li. But that’s not to say that Li isn’t interested in a war chest full of Intel’s technologies. “Intel is a great company. It really has a lot to offer.”
Leo Li, Chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum
Leo Li, Chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum
External force
Li sees Spreadtrum’s role as “an external force” to change Intel’s culture and mentality. He believes Spreadtrum can help commercialize a lot of technologies that haven’t gone beyond Intel’s R&D lab.
Li holds the view that the U.S. CPU behemoth is too accustomed to “being served” by others in the industry, rather than serving them. “BK (Intel CEO Brian Krzanich) understands this. But not everyone [inside Intel] gets it,” said Li. He indicated that Intel is “a professional company” but sometimes it moves “too slow.”
For now, Spreadtrum will use Intel’s mobile chip SoPHIA to gauge “customer engagement,” said Li. Intel designed SoPHIA for a super-cheap smartphone last year. Packed with a dual-core Atom Silvermont processor, the SoC also crams in a modem. Spreadtrum will be selling SoPHIA with a 4G modem, in addition to Spreadtrum’s existing product lines. They include single-core and quad-core ARM-based 3G mobile chips; and quad-core and octa-core based 4G mobile processors.
“If our customers like SoPHIA, I’d take it,” said Li. But Spreadtrum testing Intel’s chip for “customer engagement” doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement.
Whatever happened to the Intel Architecture-based SoCs that Spreadtrum and Intel were supposedly developing together? They were scheduled for rollout in the second half of 2015, but the project has apparently slipped.
Before the end of this year, the new SoC that will actually come out of Spreadtrum will use ARM-based octa-cores. That processor will be made by using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 16nm process technology.
Spreadtrum Guns for Intel’s 14nm FinFET in 2016
Junko Yoshida
5/27/2015 00:28 AM EDT
Post a comment
LOGIN TO RATE
inShare
31
SHANGHAI, China — Qualcomm and MediaTek, you better watch out. Here comes Spreadtrum, riding piggyback on Intel’s foundry business and gunning for 14nm FinFET, with sights set on 10nm.
China’s Spreadtrum Communications will use Intel Corp.’s 14nm FinFET process technology, for both the low- and high-end mobile chips the company plans to launch in 2016, Leo Li, chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum, told EE Times Tuesday (May 26).
For Spreadtrum, using Intel as its foundry has apparently superseded its potential adoption of Intel Architecture in future mobile chips.
Intel’s $1.5 billion investment in Tsinghua Unigroup last fall resulted in the U.S. chip giant owning 20 percent of China’s combined Spreadtrum Communications and RDA Microelectronics. Spreadtrum’s quid pro quo for Intel, under the agreement, is a matter of intense speculation among semiconductor industry observers.
Li, during the one-on-one interview, insisted, “I am under no obligation” to use Intel technologies “unless they prove to be competitive on the market.”
Nowhere in a series of agreements the two companies signed last fall is it stipulated that Spreadtrum must switch from ARM-based architecture to Intel Architecture in future chips.
“They can’t force us,” said Li. But that’s not to say that Li isn’t interested in a war chest full of Intel’s technologies. “Intel is a great company. It really has a lot to offer.”
Leo Li, Chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum
Leo Li, Chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum
External force
Li sees Spreadtrum’s role as “an external force” to change Intel’s culture and mentality. He believes Spreadtrum can help commercialize a lot of technologies that haven’t gone beyond Intel’s R&D lab.
Li holds the view that the U.S. CPU behemoth is too accustomed to “being served” by others in the industry, rather than serving them. “BK (Intel CEO Brian Krzanich) understands this. But not everyone [inside Intel] gets it,” said Li. He indicated that Intel is “a professional company” but sometimes it moves “too slow.”
For now, Spreadtrum will use Intel’s mobile chip SoPHIA to gauge “customer engagement,” said Li. Intel designed SoPHIA for a super-cheap smartphone last year. Packed with a dual-core Atom Silvermont processor, the SoC also crams in a modem. Spreadtrum will be selling SoPHIA with a 4G modem, in addition to Spreadtrum’s existing product lines. They include single-core and quad-core ARM-based 3G mobile chips; and quad-core and octa-core based 4G mobile processors.
“If our customers like SoPHIA, I’d take it,” said Li. But Spreadtrum testing Intel’s chip for “customer engagement” doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement.
Whatever happened to the Intel Architecture-based SoCs that Spreadtrum and Intel were supposedly developing together? They were scheduled for rollout in the second half of 2015, but the project has apparently slipped.
Before the end of this year, the new SoC that will actually come out of Spreadtrum will use ARM-based octa-cores. That processor will be made by using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s 16nm process technology.
展讯未尝不是Intel的一个棋子，目标就是代工市场，和嵌入式cpu市场。如果展讯做大，intel可以趁机向fabless推广自己的代工业务和x86处理器。