芯片集成有力刺激低成本智能手机增长

国际电子商情讯 据首届Linley Tech Mobile Conference会议上的一个演讲，芯片集成将是帮助智能手机实现差异化的关键因素。在低成本手机增长的推动下，2014年智能手机将达到6亿部。 “未来3亿部智能手机需求将来自功能手机的更换，” Linley Group(美国加州芒廷维尤市)的首席分析师Linley Gwennap表示，“因此智能手机设计者面临的压力将是降低系统成本，以满足这种对低成本智能手机日益增长的需求，而实现低成本的关键在于芯片集成。” Linley Group公司是这次会议的组织者。 芯片集成主要是把应用处理器与基带处理器组合在一起。Gwennap预测，到2014年，将近70%的智能手机将采用此类“集成芯片”。 设计者努力想在新兴市场把智能手机降价到100美元，集成芯片将是其中的关键。与此同时，采用分立式应用处理器与基带处理器方案的市场份额将缓慢下降到每年8000万至1亿部。 “我们完全相信，未来的多数增长将来自集成芯片，”高通的一名资深经理Raj Talluri在会上表示，“我们对智能手机市场的层次进行过分析，发现该市场50%以上属于成本低于150美元的手机，而且这个层次正在不断扩大。在这个市场层次，其材料清单(BOM)不支持分立的应用处理器与基带处理器设计方案。” LG、摩托罗拉和三星都是最大的功能手机厂商，因此最能抓住下一轮智能手机增长所带来的机会。Gwennap表示，高通和Marvell引领集成式应用与基带处理器潮流，而博通和ST Ericsson则拥有下一代集成芯片所需的元件。 他说，高通目前的四芯片智能手机芯片组，将在2012年整合为三芯片方案，分别为数字、RF与模拟功能。不过大多数的智能手机集成芯片，可能实际上还是采用将多颗裸晶封装在一起的方式。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 ［转下一页：四核芯片存在过热问题］

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{pagination} 下一步：四核芯片存在过热问题 在应用处理器方面，今年双核产品可说是横扫智能手机应用市场；英伟达以Tegra 2处理器引领潮流，该芯片已经应用在LG的智能手机与摩托罗拉的平板产品中。Gwennap预期，今年还将有其它六款来自各芯片大厂的双核手机应用处理器进驻新系统。 英伟达在2月份展示了它的新一代四核Tegra 3，此外飞思卡尔与高通也宣布将推出类似的产品。 “初期的部分四核设计的发热温度会超出智能手机的限制，因此需要限制其运行速度，这样的话就达不到预期性能，”Gwennap表示，“因此，四核芯片一开始会在平板设备的应用上比较成功，因为该类系统的散热较佳。”他说，四核芯片要到28纳米制程的版本才适合智能手机应用。 “四核本身不是问题，问题在于如何使用。” 高通的Talluri表示。他并强调，该公司的芯片能控制每个独立核心的频率。“我们的四核处理器芯片会采用28纳米制程，而且大部分(散热管理)通过芯片封装技术实现──堆叠记忆体或是采用硅通孔。” 一位来自ARM的代表表示，该公司花费不少时间开发“快速闲置(rush to idle)”技术，让处理器芯片能快点完成任务然后去“睡觉”； “当芯片全速运转时，还是会消耗大量功率，而这正是发生过热问题的时候，”Gwennap 指出。 “在接下来一至两年，英伟达与高通将在应用处理器性能表现方面争夺领先地位；德州仪器则几乎从没达到过那个境界，”Gwennap表示，“博通的目标是较低性能的主流平板市场，以及多功能手机换机市场，并非高端市场，(因为)在这个市场你不一定非要成为性能领先者。” Gwennap表示，英特尔未来可能在智能手机市场找到一个虽然小但很重要的据点。“到2014年，我们预期英特尔应该能以先进制程技术推出具有相当竞争力的产品，可能被少量的智能手机采用，但他们在创造软件生态系统方面存在很大障碍。”他说： 移动3D图形芯片也在今年迅速由双核升级至四核，不过Gwennap指出，测量移动图形处理器的原始性能仍是一项挑战，他呼吁业界订定移动图形芯片的性能基准。 Gwennap 补充指出，配备新款视频引擎的硬件，将能帮助处理两个24帧/秒的1080p视频流以获得3D效果，或是60帧/秒的视频以获得高画质。他说，要在低功耗的条件下完成这样的任务，将要求视频引擎直接访问系统内存，不经过主CPU。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载

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点击查看英文原文：Integrated chips fuel smartphone growth {pagination} Integrated chips fuel smartphone growth Rick Merritt SAN JOSE, Calif. – Silicon integration will be the key differentiator in smartphones which could grow to 600 million units in 2014, driven by expansion in low-cost handsets, according to a presentation at the inaugural Linley Tech Mobile Conference here. "The next 300 million smartphones will come from feature phone replacements," said Linley Gwennap, principal of The Linley Group (Mountain View, Calif.), organizer of the event. "The pressure for smartphone designers will be in reducing systems cost to meet this growing demand for lower cost smartphones and silicon integration is a key," Gwennap said. Much of the integration will come from combining application and baseband processors. By 2014 nearly 70 percent of all smartphones will use such integrated chips, up from 40 percent in 2010, Gwennap predicted. Such chips will be key as designers try to hit prices as low as $100 for smartphones sold in emerging markets. Meanwhile, "the percentage of the market you can address with stand-alone application and baseband processors is slowly diminishing" to about 80 to 100 million units a year, Gwennap said. "We totally believe most of the growth will come from integrated processors," said Raj Talluri, a senior Qualcomm manager at the event. "We did some analysis of the smartphone tiers and found greater than 50 percent of the market is for handsets costing less than $150--and that segment is growing. "When you get into that class the BoM doesn't support standalone apps and modem processors," Talluri added. LG, Motorola and Samsung are among the largest feature phone vendors and thus best positioned for the next round of smartphone growth. Qualcomm and Marvell led the move to integrated application and baseband processors and along with Broadcom and ST Ericsson own the pieces required for next-generation integrated chips, Gwennap said. Qualcomm is shifting from a four- to a three-chip smartphone set in 2012 with separate devices for digital, RF and analog, he added. However many integrated chips may actually use multiple die in a package. Quad-core chips too hot In application processors, dual core is sweeping the market this year. Nvidia led the way with its Tegra 2 processor already shipping in LG smartphones and Motorola tablets. A half a dozen other dual-core mobile processors from all the leading chip makers will ship in systems this year, Gwennap predicted. In February Nvidia demonstrated its next generation, the quad-core Tegra 3. Freescale and Qualcomm have announced similar products on the horizon. "Some of the initial quad-core designs will exceed the thermal limits of what you can do in a smartphone, so you will need to throttle them back and then you won't get the performance you expect," Gwennap said. "Thus quad-cores will be more successful in tablets initially because of their better heat dissipation" until 28nm versions for smartphones are available, he said. "Quad core itself is not a problem, it's how you use the cores," said Talluri of Qualcomm, noting frequency can be controlled on individual cores on his chips. "Our quad core will be 28nm, and a lot of [thermal management] is in packaging technology--where you stack memory and whether use through silicon vias," he added. An ARM representative said the company spends a lot of time enabling a "rush to idle" so chips can process a job fast and go back to sleep. "You still dissipate a lot of power when you run at full speed, and that’s when you run into the thermal issue," Gwennap said. "Over the next year or two, Nvidia and Qualcomm will duel over the performance lead in apps processors, and TI never quite gets there," said Gwennap. "Broadcom is aiming for lower performance mainstream tablets and feature phone replacements rather than the high-end luxury market [because] you don’t have to be the performance leader to make it in this market," he said. Intel is likely to find a small but significant foothold in smartphones over time, Gwennap said. "By 2014, we expect Intel to have pretty competitive products on aggressive process technologies that may be enough to get them in a small number of phones but there are big barriers for them in creating a software ecosystem," he said. Mobile 3-D graphics are also on a tear moving from dual-core chips this year to quad-core versions soon. However, measuring raw mobile graphics performance remains a challenge, said Gwennap, calling for a mobile graphics benchmark. The hardware along with new video engines will help process either two 1080-progressive video streams at 24 frames/second for stereo 3-D or 60 frames/s video for picture quality. To handle the load at low power rates will require video engines access system memory directly without going through a host CPU, he said.