A processor, or System-on-Chip (SoC), is the brain of your smartphone.
It directs and controls all functions on your unit.
Why Design a Custom Processor?
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Smartphone manufacturers are quickly hopping on the bandwagon of designing their own processors.
To tackle this, tech giants are taking it upon themselves to design their own chipsets for their smartphones.
Having an in-house processor can benefit the brand significantly.
Image Credit:Google
Lowering Cost for Competitive Advantage
Perhaps the most obvious but significant benefit of an in-house processor is cost reduction.
Procuring processors from third-party companies is expensive.
This is because of the basic supply-demand law.
Companies like Qualcomm and MediaTek manufacture most smartphone processorscreating an oligopoly market.
This leaves brands with less of a choice, especially when it comes to the cost of processors.
Since there is no real competition, manufacturers can jack up their prices for higher profits.
Image Credit:Google
Building in-house chipsets help brands save these costs.
Consequently, this provides room to reduce prices on the final products.
Even though brands could extend this, the inadequate future-proofing of external processors prevents them from doing so.
This is because SoC manufacturers currently design processors that can handle around three years of software updates.
Pushing this further would increase engineering costsaffecting profits.
This is one of the areas where an in-house processor can outperform external providers.
Designing an in-house processor provides more control over the end productenabling them to extend software support.
This also provides brands with the opportunity to customize processors according to their software needs.
We expand on this in the next section.
This gives the freedom to fine-tune the devices without having to opt for a one-size-fits-all solution.
A custom SoC increases the attunement of software and hardware of a equipment.
The two major chip manufacturers, Qualcomm and MediaTek, prioritize different things when it comes to processor cores.
For instance, Qualcomm is known for its class-leading GPU performance.
Smartphone brands who want the same specifications but with a higher CPU performance have to settle.
This is where a custom chipset serves the purpose.
Having an in-house processor allows smartphone companies to tailor cores for specific tasks.
For instance, Google has been using dedicated cores to improve different features.
More Control over End-User Experience
All the previously discussed benefits ultimately magnify the control brands have on user experience.
For instance, Google seeks toprioritize Google Assistant on the Pixel 6series to improve performance and always-on capabilities.
In the same fashion, Samsung uses its Exynos chip to optimize its native voice assistant, Bixby.
Designing custom silicon can enables features unique to the company ecosystem, helping to make the experience more enticing.
Related:What’s the Difference Between an APU, CPU, and GPU?
The Rise of Custom Processors
Samsung was the first to take up this task.
In 2010, the tech giant launched its first in-house processor, Exynos 3, codenamed Hummingbird.
In the past decade, Samsung has proved tough competition for Qualcomm as the Exynos chipset continues to improve.
For the average consumer, one thing is for certain: tech will get cheaper over time.
