Create High-end Chips, MediaTek Wants To Compete With Qualcomm

JAKARTA – Chipmaker MediaTek, known for its mid-range silicon in mobile phones, plans to challenge Qualcomm's Snapdragon line with its own high-end system-on-a-chip (SoC).

The Taiwanese company has historically produced processors for low-end devices like ARM-based Chromebooks and relatively inexpensive phones like the latest Moto G Power. MediaTek also supplies chips for connected audio products, wearables, and more.

Flagship phones usually boast the latest and greatest hardware, and that includes a blazing-fast SoC capable of performing data-intensive tasks at lightning speed.

Apple's A15 Bionic powers the iPhone 13 line, while Google's Pixel 6 series runs on the Tensor chip, and Qualcomm offers the Snapdragon series found in a variety of high-end Android phones. Meanwhile MediaTek usually stays away from the high-end market. At least, until now.

Asia-based financial analyst Dan Nystedt said MediaTek plans to announce its new high-end 5G chip on Friday, November 19. Nicknamed Dimensity 2000, Nystedt indicated chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) would manufacture silicon, utilizing its 4nm process.

Separately, GizChina reported similar plans, although it says MediaTek's SoC will be named Dimensity 9000. MediaTek has confirmed it will announce a 5G "flagship chip", but hasn't revealed any specifics.

The company has, posted a video hinting at a 4nm SoC. If the rumors are true, then Dimensity will be the first 4nm chip announced for the mobile market.

GizChina also says the Dimensity will be powerful enough to compete with the soon-to-be-announced Snapdragon 898, which will use Samsung's 4nm process. The Dimensity is said to be made up of a Cortex X2 core, three Cortex A710, four small Cortex A510, and a Mali-G710 MC10 GPU.

In comparison, reports suggest the Snapdragon 898 will also feature Cortex-X2 components, along with the Cortex-X1, Cortex-A710, and Cortex-A510.

Both GizChina and Nystedt said MediaTek will supply chips for more than a dozen Samsung phones set to launch next year. If true, MediaTek would be the third-largest silicon supplier to the phone maker behind Qualcomm and Samsung's Exynos brand.

However, despite its capabilities, it looks like Dimensity won't make it into the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S22 lineup. GizChina and other outlets are reporting Samsung's flagship devices will use the Snapdragon 898 and the soon-to-be-announced Exynos 2200.

With Samsung's plans ostensibly in place and Google and Apple using proprietary silicon, it will be interesting to see which phones rely on MediaTek's Dimensity chip, and whether it can really stay in the high-end.