Promoting development with technological innovation, the growth potential of the low-end and medium-end tablet market can be expected

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Since the era of tablet PCs, due to the defects in technology, technology and market in the industry chain, the domestic low-end and flat-end flat-panel market has developed chaotic and slow growth. However, with the maturity of the main control chip, supporting technology and process, operating system and application technology, its market growth potential will be immeasurable.

Although the development of the tablet market last year was not mature enough and the pattern was turbulent, there were constant manufacturers entering and there were manufacturers exiting, but it did not affect the market research institutions' optimistic forecast for the tablet market this year. For example, Digitimes, a Taiwan-based research organization, believes that global flat-panel shipments will be between 85 and 95 million units this year, while US market research firm IDC also raised its forecast for flat-panel shipments this year in a report released in March. The company forecasts global 2012. Tablet shipments were 106 million units, compared to the previous forecast of 88 million units. Compared with the nearly 69 million units shipped in 2011, this latest forecast means that global tablet shipments will increase by 54% year-on-year.

Of course, there is no doubt that the biggest winner in the tablet market is Apple, and its one-size-fits-all situation is difficult to change in a short period of time, but the growth of non-Apple tablets is still very strong, except for Samsung, which can compete with Apple. The sudden emergence of the Amazon Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet are also attracting attention, and the low-cost low-end tablet market is also optimistic. A recent report by market analyst firm ABI Research predicts that the tablet market will be dominated by more and more low-cost products, which will reach 60% by 2016, with markets concentrated in emerging countries such as China and India. And there will be a wave of growth in the next five years, which will further develop the global tablet market.

The development of low-cost flat-panel products is mainly due to the development of low-end and mid-level main control chips. At present, low-cost main control manufacturers include local Infront Micro, Zhongxingwei, Ruixin, Quanzhi, Jingchen, VIA and MTK in Taiwan. And South Korea's Telechips and so on. Although the price of the product is low, the stability needs to be strengthened. A person in charge of the flat product of a domestic brand manufacturer once complained to the author that the stability of the domestic main control chip is not good, and the power consumption is not coming down. As a result, the products that have been made can not even pass the company's standards, let alone the goods.

Upstream manufacturers are often very helpless, because the previous main control is mostly based on ARM11, ARM9 and other cores, hardware processing capacity is difficult to support large screens of 7 inches or more; plus the operating system is mostly Android 3.0 and below, and the previous versions of Android 3.0 are more It was developed for small-screen applications such as mobile phones, so it is not very effective for large-screen applications such as tablet PCs. These reasons have led to poor performance of low-end products and poor user response. In this market, there are too many competitors, and price has become the most effective means of attracting users. Therefore, many domestic master controllers and planners can only be killed in a cruel price war, which is obviously not conducive to the healthy development of the tablet industry.

Although the price war is inevitable in this year's market, it is gratifying that in 2012, the mid- and low-end tablet PCs will fully enter the single-core Cortex-A8 or A9 level, and it is expected that they will soon enter the dual-core. In the era, the improvement of kernel performance and the accumulation of technology by the main control manufacturers and the launch of Android 4.0 are expected to enable low-end tablets to develop towards more and more stable performance, thus helping to expand the market.

Quanzhi: SoC technology development promotes the low-end tablet market

At present, the hottest chip in the domestic main control market is the A10 of Quanzhi. Since the company launched the Cortex-A8 processor-based chip A10 in September last year, its increasing sales have surprised many people. Now there are many second-tier brand manufacturers and white-label manufacturers to follow up, such as Aino, Onda, Taipower, Lanchen, Pnell, Lingyun, Lan Xingwei, Dehong, Hongyuxing, etc., I believe there will be More manufacturers joined. According to relevant sources, the current A10 monthly chip shipments have reached nearly 1 million. No matter whether this figure is exaggerated, it is certain that the shipment of this chip will continue to be bullish.

Why is the launch of the All-Chi A10 chip not long, and it will be hot in such a fast time, but the manufacturers that launched the chip before it did not have such performance? The general view in the industry is the price/performance ratio. On the whole, the A10 of Quanzhi can be said to be a chip with a relatively high price/performance ratio on the market. Although all the ambitions in the push of A10, some so-called "core technology", "support 2160p 24FPS video decoding capabilities" and other gimmick parameters so many people scoffed, some people criticized the chip "A10" name is purely flicker consumers, will It is misunderstood that it is the new ARM architecture of Cortex-A10, but apart from these marketing methods, in essence, Quanzhi A10 can have such attractive and cost-effective and quickly occupy the market in a short time, so that other competitors can not Don't be afraid to be careful, and there must be something extraordinary.

As can be seen from the block diagram of the A10, the SoC integrates HDMI, LVDS, LCD, Touch Driver, Ethernet MAC, Audio Codec, SATA, GPS and many other functions as well as DDR/DDR2/DDR3, NAND Flash, WiFi, Video port. Interfaces such as PMU rely on its excellent digital-to-analog integration capabilities. The integration of SoC is very high. Many designs that need to be processed at the board level are directly completed by the chip, solving hardware system design problems and simplifying PCB layout. Requirements reduce the cost of the solution integrator and the difficulty of development.

In terms of video decoding processing, A10 adopts self-developed codec and dual-screen display technology, which supports full-format 1080p and maximum support of 2160p decoding capability. Although this has some gimmick components, it also means better video processing capability. Compatibility and scalability; in terms of low-power design, through the integration of its own PMU technology, including DVFS dynamic frequency modulation technology, switching high-current charging, multi-channel programmable output, high-accuracy fuel metering, etc. The control performance has been greatly improved. For example, the standby time of the whole machine can reach one week, the video playback can reach 8 hours, and the charging heat is also greatly reduced.

In addition, in the package and chip process of the chip, the whole process is to go against the trend, and the pitch of the pins is increased from 0.6mm to 0.8mm. This modification has made many previous manufacturers of MP3, PMP and other multimedia digital products available. Achieving the level of production of tablet PCs, expanding the production capacity of the entire industry chain, so that many PMP machine manufacturers who are peeping into the tablet market have the possibility to enter.

On the basis of ensuring stability, the whole board has made the PCB board four layers. Compared with the traditional six- to eight-layer wiring technology, the four-layer circuit board can greatly shorten the product delivery cycle while reducing the cost. The 15 to 30-day cycle is shortened to 7 days, which reduces the supply pressure in the industry chain.

The above-mentioned series of technical improvements have greatly improved the company's products in terms of straight-through rate, from the previous 70% to the current 95%, and the repair rate has also been reduced from 15% to 1%.

Of course, all of them can achieve such results in a short period of time. In addition to the above technical improvements to increase the production base and relax the requirements for the industrial chain, the supporting technology, the maturity of the process and the improvement of the operating system have also contributed to the company's achievements today. Li Zhi, the company's product director, said: "We have done a very difficult job in the early stage, but we seized the opportunity to enter the flat-panel market at the right time, and because the current product supporting processes are relatively mature, we can quickly start."
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Ruixin: New solution accelerates the popularity of dual-core tablets

Another popular chip in the tablet master market is the RK2918 from Ruixin. The chip is also based on the Cortex-A8 core, with a maximum frequency of 1.2GHz and 3D acceleration. Its previous generation RK2818 was once a universal solution for many domestic flat panels, and the new products have greatly improved in performance compared to the previous generation. With excellent performance in video and games, good compatibility and high frequency, the RK2918 has been favored by many manufacturers such as Blue Devil, Taipower, Coolby Rubik's Cube, Original Road, Owen, and Pnell since its launch in May last year. .

The performance of the Ruixin solution is relatively stable, but the SoC integration is not as high as A10, and the pricing and positioning are relatively high. Compared with many Cortex-A8/A9 chips currently on the market, there is no price advantage, but the company started from the domestic tablet. At the same time, it began to actively follow up. At the same time, it relied on the close cooperation with many MP4 vendors. They also have a lot of customer resources. These early accumulations are quite beneficial to Ruixin.

Although there are such advantages, Ruixin can't relax in technology research and development and product upgrade. Not long ago, the company released the next-generation low-cost Android tablet solution, the RK30XX platform, based on the 40nm LP process, which includes a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with a maximum frequency of 1.4GHz; integrated ARM Mali-400 MP Quad-core GPU with enhanced graphics performance. In addition, in order to reduce costs, the platform supports normal DDR3 and DDR2 memory in addition to LPDDR2, which is common in the mobile field.

Like all of Rockchip's previous solutions, the new generation RK30XX is also a "nanny" solution. The company has packaged the main components such as processor, display chip, baseband, and IO. Any tablet manufacturer can purchase it and then It is built into its own product, and its own design has only a few components such as a casing. Since the second half of this year, dual-core master control is undoubtedly the trend of the times. With the launch of the Ruixin dual-core solution, many dual-core and low-cost tablet PCs will appear on the market this year. Of course, other domestic main control manufacturers are also sharp-knife in the dual-core field. The competition between them will also speed up the popularization of domestic dual-core tablets and further promote the development of the low-end tablet market.

Jing Chen: the leader of the single-core A8/A9 era

At the beginning of last year, the main control chip in the domestic tablet market was the AML8726-M of Jingchen. This is an important program to lead the local mainstream tablet into the A8/A9 era. It is widely believed that its appearance makes the domestic tablet. The computer got rid of the low performance, low quality hat. The chip is based on the 65nm process, using the Cortex-A9 core of the ARMv7 architecture, clocked at 800MHz, and an upgraded version of the AML8726-M3 was introduced in mid-December.
The AML8726-M3 was equipped with the Android 4.0.3 system at the beginning. It is still a single core of the Cortex-A9. The clock speed is increased to 1GHz, the L2 cache is kept at 128KB, and the specifications of the ARM Mali-400 graphics core remain unchanged at 25M/250M. That is, the GPU frequency has not changed. The video subsystem supports 1080P decoding, and the supporting functions continue in the past. However, the new solution is more integrated, including audio DAC, LVDS screen control and other chips can be eliminated, while supporting DDR3 memory, and the integrated HDMI controller standard is slightly upgraded. In general, performance and efficiency are slightly improved, and the price is lower, but in essence, the change is still small.

Because the crystal morning positioning is also relatively high-end, the customers who cooperate with it are generally famous domestic brands such as Patriots and Blue Devils, and even international famous manufacturers such as Sony and Philips. The company is not very keen to sell the price. It was very low; later, because the performance of the Ruixin RK2918 program and the Quanzhi A10 program was quite strong, it was popular in the market, and the plan of Jingchen was slowly squeezed. At present, there are fewer and fewer products using the crystal morning AML8726-M3 in domestic tablet PCs. There are only a few representative products of Yinyuehui, Zhiyi and Aino.

Jing Chen hopes to make a breakthrough with the introduction of dual-core chips. On March 21 this year, the company also announced the development of a dual-core A9 chip model AML8726-MX, which is said to have a maximum frequency of 1.5GHz. In the GPU, two ARM Mali-400 cores are used. Compared with the current high-profile Ruixin RK30XX series dual-core chips, who can better grasp the user's heart and wait for the listing of related applications to see the results. What is certain is that, in the single-core era or the dual-core era, Jingchen has played a positive role in promoting the development of domestic tablet PCs.
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Jun Zheng: Using the MIPS architecture to develop the tablet market

Compared with many domestic ARM architecture masters, Junzheng's approach has a maverick feel. It is one of the few leading manufacturers in China using MIPS architecture. Since it is difficult for domestic chip manufacturers to obtain the architecture license from ARM, there is no architecture license. Only the kernel license is difficult to develop powerful and excellent products like Qualcomm, Apple, NVIDIA and other vendors that have obtained the architecture license. In addition, only the kernel license also leads to The product homogeneity is serious and the profit margin is small. It is for this reason that Jun is abandoning the ARM architecture and turning to the MIPS architecture, and has obtained the MIPS architecture license. By combining MIPS and its own instruction set, the XBurst series CPU is produced with an innovative pipeline structure. According to Jun Zheng's data, under the same process conditions, XBurst's power consumption is 1/3 to 1/4 of ARM CPU; performance is 1.2 times to 1.5 times that of ARM CPU; its size is 1/2.

In December last year, Junzheng and MIPS jointly released the world's first Android 4.0 tablet, which uses Jungle's XBurst series CPU-based chip JZ4770, which is known for its low power consumption and video decoding capabilities. Can meet the CPU technical requirements of many low-end smartphones and tablets. At the same time as the introduction of the JZ4770 CPU chip, Junzheng's latest generation of the main control chip JZ4780 also began research and development. According to the relevant person in charge of the company, the JZ4780 product will adopt 40nm technology, which is a dual-core CPU with a frequency of 1.2~1.5GHz. It is expected to launch this MIPS-based JZ4780 dual-core sample in May and June 2012. It will be introduced to the market in September and October. The JZ4780 will be able to meet the needs of more mobile terminal devices, and Junzheng hopes to use it to further open the mobile product market.

However, there is still a gap between the MIPS ecosystem and ARM, and the compatibility between MIPS and Android has become a concern of downstream vendors and consumers. It is necessary to gain user recognition and trust in the mobile market, and to catch up or catch up with ARM. MIPS still has a long way to go, and Jun is naturally a long way to go. It is reported that the company has been actively communicating with domestic software developers, and has already cooperated with domestic well-known Internet manufacturers such as Tencent, Baidu, Sina, Sohu, Taobao in application, and also in the application market with Anzhi, Android, and machine front. Cooperation in the four major application markets, such as application and exchange. The mainstream downloads with the largest downloads in the country are compatible, and the top 10 downloads of various applications including network video, translation, finance, social, photography, SNS, music, security, etc. have been compatible with MIPS.

This year's competition in the low-end tablet market will become more and more fierce. Jun Zheng hopes that with the MIPS architecture, he can take a different approach and get out of the road of differentiation. Compared with the vendors that only get the ARM core license, MIPS's architecture license can give Junzhen more opportunities to play and innovate. It is expected that the company's development will inject more vitality into the Chinese flat panel industry.
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to sum up

After two years of industry exploration, China's tablet PCs continue to increase in strength through the constant competition and improvement of many manufacturers and the continuous upgrading and integration of the industry chain. Some insiders pointed out that the short-term domestic flat-panel market lies in the low level of production chain, immature technology and defects in supply chain support, but he believes that the emergence of the whole product represented by Quan Zhi A10 has broken through SoC technology, supporting technology, production technology, etc. The bottleneck has laid the foundation for low-end and mid-range products, and has also broadened the market, making it possible for Chinese flats to take off.

Whether the A10 can take off the Chinese flat-panel market remains to be verified, but it is certain that with the gradual maturity of the main control chip, supporting technologies and processes, operating systems and application technologies, the growth potential of the Chinese flat-panel market will be incalculable. "When users choose products, they don't pay too much attention to the hardware platform or who is considering the main control (because the main control can be quite stable), it is the arrival of China's flat market. Day," said one solution integrator.

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