The engineers of Apple custom made the chips inside their devices which are the A4, A5 and A5X. Similarly, Samsung also uses their own Exynos chip inside their tablets and smartphones. Earlier this year, Huawei made an announcement that they will put a custom chip inside the Ascend D1 Quad, their flagship Android device.
Because many companies are already customizing the chips for their devices, several companies are also following the same suit. One of these companies reported to work on its own chip is HTC. According to Unwired View, the Taiwan-based device maker is partnering with ST-Ericsson in making a customized chip aimed at creating low-end Android handsets which are set to be launched in 2013.
As of this time, it is not yet known how much effort HTC will put in the process of designing the chip. However, it seems that they will have a very minor part in the process and they are even expected to just give ST-Ericsson the power and performance figures needed to create a perfect product.
Based on the portfolio of Sony Ericsson, it is highly likely that the chip will be a variant of the U4500. That chip combines the ARM Mali 400 GPU and 1 GHz ARM Cortex A9 processor. In addition, it also has the HSPA+ modem.
The chip is also expected to feature GPS/Wifi and Bluetooth capabilities together with NFC support. In its entirety, the chip is designed to operate smartphones within the $100 range.
Aside from creating their own chip, it is also a point of debate at this time if vendors of smaller handset should start considering custom silicon to be able to differentiate them further. Samsung and Apple, the two device giants at present, are already utilizing their personal in-house processors.
In the meantime, all other companies are trying to make a profit while Qualcomm has made record breaking revenues in the last two quarters. Although chips made by Qualcomm and NVIDIA are competitive enough, the two companies are negatively affecting the bottom line of other companies that utilize them. Therefore, it is really a good idea if other companies begin to create their own custom chip for use in their devices.
