According to data released by CINNO Research, a third-party data agency, the terminal sales volume of China's smartphone processor (SoC) market last year was 314 million units, an increase of 3% year-on-year. The top five vendors are: MediaTek (110 million units), Qualcomm (106 million units), Apple (50.4 million units), Huawei HiSilicon (30.2 million units) and Tsinghua Unigroup Zhanrui (8.8 million units).
The competitive pattern of "three-legged standing" (HiSilicon, Qualcomm, MediaTek) has become "two superpowers, one strong" (MediaTek, Qualcomm, Apple). While lamenting for HiSilicon, there is also a big dark horse in the market, and UNISOC entered the top five for the first time, an increase of 10312.7% year-on-year. Although the shipment of 8.8 million units is "not enough", it is of great symbolic significance for the chip company, which has been in the turmoil of integration and constantly missing opportunities: finally settled down and started running on the main track.
First of all, a brief introduction: Founded in 2016, Tsinghua Unigroup Zhanrui is integrated by Spreadtrum, which makes baseband chips, and Ruidike, which is known for its RF chips and Internet of Things chips. As one of the few enterprises in the world that fully grasps the full range of 2G to 5G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, TV FM, satellite communication and other full-scenario communication technologies, its products cover smart phone chips, baseband chips, AI chips, RF chips, etc., and customers include Honor, realme, ZTE, TRANSSION, Lenovo, etc.
Back in 2001, Wu Ping and Chen Datong, who had worked in Silicon Valley for many years, returned to China to start a business and established Spreadtrum Communications. The company has created a number of "global firsts": the first 40-nanometer 2.5G multimedia baseband chip SC6600B, the first TD-SCDMA/GSM dual-mode baseband single-chip SC8800A, and the first 40nm TD-HSPA/TD-SCDMA multimode communication chip SC8800G. Spreadtrum also went through many detours, spending 500 million yuan to develop 3G chips, and as a result, 3G was not officially promoted until 5 years after the product was released.
In December 2013, Tsinghua Unigroup acquired Spreadtrum For $1.78 billion. Six months later, It acquired Rydico for $907 million. At that time, it was the only integrated circuit supplier in China that could successfully design and mass-produce a full range of digital and RF products on a large scale, almost monopolizing the entire PHS market.
The integration process did not go well, and in 2016 the two companies announced a merger, which took a full two years to complete. Internal management is chaotic, and there is a large loss of employees. There was no new product launch, resulting in almost no new orders, and because of the continuous chip problem, it offended many old customers.
It wasn't until Chu Qing, the former chief strategy officer of HiSilicon, officially took office that the situation changed. At that time, 5G began to rise, and he was keenly aware that 5G had the opportunity to become a new starting point for Zhanrui, so he resolutely stopped cooperation with Intel and started 5G independent research and development. Thousands of R&D personnel worked around the clock to release the first Tiger Ben T7510 just half a year later. Although the first generation of 5G chips is still a 12nm process, it is directly 6nm to the Tiger Ben T7520, skipping the 10nm and 7nm processes.
In April last year, Tsinghua Unigroup announced the launch of a new brand of 5G chips, Tanggula, and the Tiger Ben T7510 and Tiger Ben T7520 were transformed into Tanggula T740 and Tanggula T770. It is reported that the new brand will have four series of 6 (positioned in 5G inclusive products), 7 (emphasizing product experience upgrades), 8 (the main performance pioneer), and 9 (representing cutting-edge technology) to achieve full coverage from low-end to high-end.
UNISOC launched the industry's first baseband chip Tanggula V516 that supports the 5G R16 standard; released a 5G RF front-end solution to provide a comprehensive 5G chip solution from baseband to RF; and at the end of December, it officially announced that the 6nm chip was mass-produced, marking that it has fully equipped the research and development and commercial capabilities of advanced process chips.
Last year, the company achieved operating income of 11.7 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 78% year-on-year, which is the first time since the merger that it has returned to more than 10 billion yuan. Due to the heavy card setting, Huawei HiSilicon gradually withdrew from the 5G market, and Tsinghua Unigroup Zhanrui became the only 5G general-purpose chip supplier in Chinese mainland. However, the gap with the head enterprise is still very large, and it is still necessary to continue to focus on innovation and research and development if you want to overtake in curves.