IF / News

Chipsets

Samsung has officially released its new mid-range smartphone chip, Exynos 9609. This new chip is a downgrade of the Exynos 9610 and is expected to be used on future Galaxy A-series phones. It is based on a 10nm FinFET process and features an eight-core design that includes a 4×2.2GHz Cortex A73 high-performance core + 4×1.6GHz Cortex A53 low-power core. The GPU is the ARM Mali-G72 MP3. (CN Beta, Samsung, GizChina)

360 Group has indicated that it will strengthen cooperation with HiSilicon and strongly support domestic chip makers. 360 said that it will fully support domestic chip manufacturers and work together to build a domestic industrial technology industry chain. Currently, 360’s various IoT products have already cooperated with Hisilicon, including AI cameras. (CN Beta, Sina, Sohu)

Huawei Technologies’ chip arm HiSilicon has revealed that it has long been prepared for the “extreme scenario” that it could be banned from purchasing U.S. chips and technology, and is able to ensure steady supply of most products. (NDTV, Reuters, Android Authority, FT Chinese, My Drivers)

LG has announced its own AI chip that is designed for use in future smart home products. It will work with proprietary LG Neural Engine technology, also newly devised, in order to add more natural, human thinking patterns to its artificially intelligent devices. (Pocket-Lint, Engadget, LG, Engadget CN, Inpai)

Unisoc’s Ivy 510 5G modem chip has been validated for 5G NR sub-6 GHz signaling, and will be fabricated by TSMC on the 7nm node for official application in the starting year of 5G commercialization in 2019, according to Steve Chu, CEO of China-based fabless chipmaker under the Tsinghua Unigroup. (Digitimes, press, My Drivers)

Huawei’s chipmaking arm HiSilicon is aggressively planning the development of its 5G mobile SoC integrating a modem chip, as well as 5G mmWave solutions for smartphones after releasing its Kirin 985 series mobile AP in 2H19, according to Digitimes. (Digitimes, press, Digitimes, press)

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has reportedly grabbed orders for all the 5G modem chips that have been introduced by fabless chipmakers, such as Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 and HiSilicon Balong series. TSMC has kicked off volume production for 5G modem chips for Qualcomm and HiSilicon, and is gearing up for production for MediaTek Helio M70 5G modem in 2H19, according to Digitimes. All their first 5G modem solutions will be built using TSMC’s 7nm process technology. (Digitimes, press, Digitimes, Ailab)

Touch Display

Full screen adoption is expected to reach 87% / 93% of overall smartphone panel shipments in 2019 / 2020, up from 12% in 2017 and 66% in 2018. This will continue to drive the adoption of TDDI and COF packaging. Credit Suisse expects COF tape to remain in supply tightness in 2019, but the new capacity ramp up from 2020 and technology/design changes could ease the supply tightness in 2020. (Credit Suisse report)

Credit Suisse believes Novatek should retain its leading position for TDDI and the new AMOLED opportunities could become a new growth driver from 2020. Credit Suisse also thinks the full-screen trend and Chinese AMOLED ramp should benefit Chipbond. (Credit Suisse report)

In terms of AMOLED suppliers, Credit Suisse believes Samsung will continue to dominate the market with over 75% share, but the aggressive ramps by BOE, Tianma, EverDisplay, and Visionox offer better opportunities for Taiwan TDDI makers like Novatek and Radyium, as well as backend foundries Chipbond and ChipMOS. (Credit Suisse report)

Credit Suisse believes Huawei is the most aggressive brand to adopt AMOLED, especially BOE has improved its production yield for flexible AMOLED panels. Credit Suisse thinks Huawei’s AMOLED panel adoption could reach 50M~60M units in 2019, up from 20M~25M units in 2018. Credit Suisse suggests OPPO and vivo will increase their AMOLED panel adoption in 2019, although over smartphone shipments will be flattish YoY. (Credit Suisse report)

Camera

An OPPO’s patent describes a smartphone with a 180º rotating camera. According to the patent illustration, there are three cameras on the module, one with two cameras on one side and one camera on the other, but the flash is equipped on both sides. (CN Beta, GizChina, LetsGoDigital)

Memory

Total investment by Samsung in the second phase of its chip plant in Xi’an, capital of northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, will exceed USD14B. However, Samsung said that the scale of investment has not yet been determined. (My Drivers, Xinhua Net)

Biometrics

Credit Suisse believes under-display fingerprint has been well received by consumers amid the full screen display trend. They see upside for 2019 under-display fingerprint shipment given the better YTD sell through for top smartphone makers like Samsung, Huawei, etc. They revise under-display fingerprint shipment to 200M units in 2019 (60M units for ultrasonic and 140M units for optical) from prior 185M units (50M units for ultrasonic and 135M units for optical). (Credit Suisse report)

Battery

Tesla has acquired Maxwell Technologies, known manufacturer of ultra-capacitors and developer of new dry electrode technology for batteries. The deal is worth some USD235M. (Clean Technica, Inside EVs, Electrek, CN Beta)

Phone

China Mobile deputy GM Jiang Hengjiang indicates that the price of 5G phone would drop gradually, and he expects by end of 2019, 5G phone with about CNY5000 would emerge. China Unicom deputy GM Chen Hengfeng expects by end of 2019, the price of 5G phone would drop to CNY3000. With estimations from both companies, the cost of 5G phones could drop from CNY10,000 in 1H19 to about CNY5000 or even CNY3000, with the drop rate of more than 50%~70%. (My Drivers, Sohu, BJ News, C114)

Huawei Technologies is allegedly asking its top Asian chipmakers to maintain deliveries after Washington decided to curb the telecom giant’s access to American technology. (Reuters, IT Home, GizChina, Asia Nikkei)

According to Jiguang Big Data, smartphones sold in China in 1Q19, more than 80% of which are priced below CNY3,000. Huawei’s low-end models accounted for a significant increase in sales. Xiaomi sales of new models with a price of more than CNY4,000 accounted for 2.9% of sales. (Jiguang report)

OPPO A9x is official – 6.53” 1080×2340 FHD+ IPS LCD, MediaTek Helio P70 MT6771V, rear dual 48MP-2MP + front 16MP, 6+128GB, Android 9.0, rear fingerprint scanner, 4020mAh 20W VOOC 3.0, CNY1,999. (GizChina, GSM Arena, OPPO)

vivo Y3 is official in China – 6.35” 1544×720 HD+ IPS, MediaTek MT6765, rear tri 13MP-8MP-2MP + front 16MP, 4+128GB, Android 9.0, rear fingerprint scanner, 5000mAh, CNY1,498. (GizChina, Gizmo China, CN Beta, Sina)

Augmented / Virtual Reality

Magic Leap has acquired the spatial co-presence company Mimesys, a maker of telepresence collaboration software for enterprise users. With its platform, distant users can interact with one another with fully realized holographic images of one another as 3-D people standing around in a room. The platform also allows for those people to interact with rendered objects in real time, together, permitting real-time communication and collaboration on projects. (TechCrunch, Magic Leap, Silicon Angle, Yivian, Sohu)

Automotive

Tesla will push an updated Autopilot in Europe that scales back on a couple of functions in order to comply with new regulations. The changes will require faster lane changes and limit how far you can turn the steering wheel on Autosteer. The update only impacts Model S and Model X vehicles; Model 3 already complies with the new rules. (Engadget, Electrek, Xinhua08, Sina)