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Intel, Spreadtrum Demo Brainchild

Is Intel getting ready for Apple?

Junko Yoshida 3/1/2017 02:01 PM EST

BARCELONA – Intel Corp. is showing off in its booth at the Mobile World Congress a new mobile SoC chip developed by China’s Spreadtrum Communications.

Designated SC90861-IA, the new chip is based on Intel architecture, manufactured by Intel using its own 14nm LP process technology.

The SoC’s CPU inside comes from Intel. It’s based on Octa-Core 2GHz Intel Airmont architecture.

Meanwhile, the modem — designed to cover TD-LTE/FD-LTE/TD-SCDMA/WCDMA/GSM, LTE Category 7 (downlink offering 300Mbps, and uplink at 100Mbps) — comes from Spreadtrum.

Spreadtrum was responsible for integration and the overall design of the SoC, according to Intel.

The 64-bit Octa-core LTE SoC platform represents the first tangible result from Intel’s $1.5 billion investment in the Chinese outfit, showcasing the companies’ collaboration on a commercial chip three years in the making.

The SC90861-IA is already sampling, with its first customer scheduled to be announced in the second quarter this year. The first design win is a Chinese OEM planning to market the phone outside China, said Jimmy Zhang, senior product marketing manager at Intel.

Getting ready for Apple?

Spreadtrum’s new SoC is a big boost for Intel’s aspirations to be a big player in the foundry business. Thus far, Intel has been unable to win large customers to use its foundry service for commercial SoCs.

The real significance of this news is not necessarily the volume of production expected from Spreadtrum’s new chip, said an industry observer who spoke with EE Times on the condition of anonymity. Rather, this “paves the way for Intel to manufacture their own new XMM 7560 modem later this year in their own fab for the first time, targeting Apple.”

The XMM 7560, Intel’s fifth generation LTE modem, is the first to be manufactured based on Intel’s 14nm process.

For Spreadtrum, the project with Intel brings three blessings: “access to Intel’s foundry, strong IP and Intel is the only processor architecture company that has its own foundry,” Leo Li, chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum Communications, told EE Times two years ago.

In the SC90861-IA, Spreadtrum is using Intel CPU cores for the first time — all its other smartphone SoCs are based on ARM cores. Spreadtrum is also debuting Imagination’s PowerVR GT7200 GPU, instead of ARM’s Mali.

The other core that remains inside the SC90861-IA is CEVA’s DSP. Spreadtrum has used it for its LTE modem in every chip they make, including the new one.

Key multimedia features of the new SoC include: support for 26 Megapixel, dual 13 Megapixl camera; ultra-HD 4K 2K video, and 2556 x 1440 display.

Intel’s Zhang told EE Times the SC90861-IA is designed for high-to-medium range smartphones. On the chip level, it’s equivalent to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 series.

How it started

Most likely, the Intel-Spreadtrum partnership took a lot of effort by both teams.

The originally promised Intel Architecture-based SoC by Spreadtrum was first scheduled for rollout in the second half of 2015, but the project slipped to 2016.

Two years ago, during a one-on-one interview with EE Times, Spreadtrum’s Li insisted, “I am under no obligation” to use Intel technologies “unless they prove to be competitive on the market.”

Although he wasn’t forthright with Spreadtrum’s plan for Intel Architecture in 2015, he was happy to discuss the genesis of the two companies’ partnership.

The project with Intel that has culminated with the SC90861 started at the Mobile World Congress in 2014, when Spreadtrum’s Li met Renée James, then Intel’s president.

By September 2014, the relationship had grown to the point that Intel agreed to invest up to RMB 9 billion (about $1.5 billion) for a minority stake in a holding company under Tsinghua Unigroup, which eventually owned both Spreadtrum and RDA Microelectronics.

Intel’s ambition at that time was to leverage the market prowess of Spreadtrum — China’s leading telecommunication chip company — and penetrate the Chinese market with Intel-based mobile devices. On the cutthroat smartphone SoC market, between now and then, Intel retreated from the mobile SoC business. However, it has retained its modem chip business.

It’s unclear if the new SC90861-IA will be the tipping point for Spreadtrum to flip to Intel Architecture in the company’s entire mobile SoC line. Considering the number of low-end and super low-end mobile SoCs Spreadtrum markets, it’s unlikely.

But for Intel, if it can win a modem socket in Apple’s upcoming iPhone 8, that estimated $1.5 billion investment in Spreadtrum might be well justified.

The SC90861-IA is just the beginning, said Intel’s Zhang. Intel and Spreadtrum are cooking up other projects, he added.

— Junko Yoshida, Chief International Correspondent, EE Times

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331424