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Spreadtrum will use Intel 14nm FinFET process technology for both the low- and high-end mobile chips the company plans to launch in 2016.

Spreadtrum Guns for Intel’s 14nm FinFET in 2016

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For Spreadtrum, using Intel as its foundry has apparently superseded its potential adoption of Intel Architecture in future mobile chips.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.”

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.

Trust zone issues
Li retains very high expectations for Intel Architecture (IA) in one respect. “It’s about trust zones,” he said. “IA has multiple trust zones for security. It’s because IA comes from the PC background.”

Knowing that security is becoming more and more important, said Li, “I want more trust zones.”

In contrast, ARM has one trust zone. When Li asked ARM why only one, the U.K. company told him, “It’s an architecture design issue.” With so many companies in ARM’s ecosystem, with whom ARM maintains an equal distance, ARM is in no position to do anything special for Spreadtrum.

For Li, it’s comforting to know that both ARM and X86 cores are 100 percent (or more accurately “96 percent,” said Li) compatible with Google. He sees no issues in switching to IA.

But what about power consumption issues of IA? Isn’t that the whole reason why ARM is beating Intel?

Li thinks Spreadtrum can work with Intel to customize IA for power improvements. “Intel could fine tune it, and optimize it” for the mobile market. But that may be “three years from now,” Li said.

Working with Intel, he sees three things going for Spreadtrum. “The access to Intel’s foundry, strong IP, and Intel is the only processor architecture company that has its own foundry.”

French connection

The Intel-Spreadtrum courtship didn’t begin until March, 2014 in Barcelona. During the Mobile World Congress, Li was introduced to Renée James, president of Intel. An executive at France Telecom, which owns Orange [mobile operator in France], whom Li knows well, acted as a matchmaker.

Li said, “Renée and I hit it off immediately. What was planned as a 20-minute meeting was extended to 40-minutes, and many meetings and back and forth followed, including BK.”

The French operator urged Li to take note of Intel’s prowess in server technologies. France Telecom uses a lot of servers, running virtual networks. The France Telecom executive told Li, “We only use Intel. We don’t think ARM is up to par with Intel in the server market.”

In the end, Intel’s investment in Spreadtrum/RDA came at the right time. Qualcomm at that time was under heavy investigation by Chinese government agencies on charges of antitrust and IPR abuse. Some Chinese analysts we talked to in Shanghai this week called Intel’s investment in Spreadtrum “a knee-jerk reaction.”

Perhaps. But buying good will with the Chinese government can go a long way for Intel, and it was a smart move, said Li.

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1326692