In recent years, imaging functions have become one of the most focused areas of development for mobile phone manufacturers. Ultra-large bottoms, periscope ultra-telephoto, billion-level pixels, telephoto and macro...the specifications are It is getting higher and higher, but mobile phone manufacturers are not satisfied with this on the road of imaging.

Many people tend to think of the future of mobile phone photography as computational photography, and the end point of computational photography may be self-developed ISP chips. In addition to Apple, Samsung, and Google, we are also happy to see , more and more domestic mobile phone manufacturers are developing their own ISPs.

Why are mobile phone manufacturers starting to develop their own ISP chips? What's the use? Let’s discuss it together here.

Has self-developed ISP made Huawei mobile phones successful?

The so-called ISP is the abbreviation of Image Signal Processor. In the camera system, it is not enough to have the original digital images captured by the lens and image processor. They also need to be output to the ISP. After algorithmic processing, the final photo is what we see.

In other words, the series of in-camera processing such as image sharpening, noise reduction, color optimization, and multi-frame synthesis after we press the shutter are all processed in the ISP. Obviously, ISP plays a key role in the final imaging effect.

In view of the importance of ISP, various processor manufacturers now also provide built-in ISP. For example, the Spectra 580 ISP built into the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor can capture photos at a speed of 2.7 billion pixels per second. and video, and built-in ISP can also reduce development difficulty and cost. So why do mobile phone manufacturers still develop their own ISP?

In fact, the reason is easy to think of. The built-in ISP is packaged inside the processor, and the conditions for tuning are also fixed, which is not conducive to realizing the differentiated advantages of the product. You can have the best performance characteristics. Others can buy it too.

Since 2015, Huawei HiSilicon Kirin 950 has used self-developed ISP technology commercially for the first time. The shooting capabilities of Huawei Mate8 equipped with this chip have obviously reached a higher level, which is perhaps the best proof of the advantages of self-developed ISP. .

The Kirin 9000 is equipped with the latest ISP 6.0, which supports four-pipeline parallelism, which is higher than Qualcomm’s triple parallelism, bringing simultaneous improvements in still photo and video processing capabilities.

Some people say that after investing 600 million yuan to form a top expert team of 300 people and taking 3 years to develop the ISP, Huawei’s mobile phone camera capabilities now surpass those of Apple and Samsung. This may be true. However, after Huawei's chips were restricted, other domestic manufacturers are now diving into self-developed ISPs. Can they replicate Huawei's success?

Xiaomi and OPPO have followed suit

Previously, Xiaomi’s self-developed ISP chip ThePaper C1 has been released, and Xiaomi MIX Fold is the first mobile phone to use this chip. According to Xiaomi, ThePaper C1 is equipped with dual filters, capable of parallel processing of high and low frequencies, and the digital signal processing efficiency is increased by 100%. It can achieve faster and more accurate AF focusing performance, AWB white balance algorithm, and AE exposure strategy.

To put it simply, Xiaomi took out the three parts of the ISP regarding focus, white balance, and exposure and improved them on its own, and put them in ThePaper C1.

Although Xiaomi MIX Fold does not have a significant improvement in image quality, the autofocus switching achieved by its telephoto macro lens should have the function of ThePaper C1.

Now that we have the chip foundation of self-developed IPS, Xiaomi’s self-developed camera algorithm can also be better applied. This should also be the goal of Xiaomi’s self-developed ISP chip.

Last year, OPPO applied for the OPPO M1 trademark to the European Union Intellectual Property Office. Based on current news, OPPO M1 is likely to be the name of its first self-developed chip, and it is also an ISP. chip.

For Xiaomi and OPPO, who are still newcomers in the "core-making field", it is naturally unrealistic to try to create a flagship processor all at once. Instead, it is not unrealistic to start with ISP, which is very important for the camera function of mobile phones. Smart move.

Generally speaking, whether using an external self-developed ISP or a built-in ISP, engineers need to carefully adjust various processing parameters. Therefore, in theory, mobile phone manufacturers self-developed ISPs can better adapt to different mobile phones and Apply scenarios to make more targeted and in-depth parameter adjustments to obtain better image quality effects.

Perhaps in a few years, manufacturers’ self-developed ISP will be enough for each Android phone manufacturer to have its own more systematic color style and shooting functions. What everyone is competing for is actually deeper optimization capabilities.

The most cost-effective way to make cores

In the final analysis, ISP is an excellent starting point for mobile phone manufacturers who want to develop their own chips: on the one hand, its The development difficulty is relatively lower than that of CPU, GPU and other modules, but the importance is very high, which can help achieve differentiation in photo quality. Therefore, ISP can be said to have lower investment and risk, but larger potential returns, making it an ideal choice for getting started with self-developed chips.

Of course, even self-developed ISP chips are by no means an easy task, involving various aspects such as capital, technology, and market. You know, Huawei's ISP chip has also gone through many years of research to achieve its current status. Domestic newcomers OPPO and Xiaomi need to persist in accumulation and research and development to achieve their goals.

Finally, as the mobile phone imaging arms race intensifies today, self-developed ISP chips may be an important determinant of the imaging strength of mobile phone manufacturers in the future. When image sensors and lenses come from the same supplier, the strength of the self-developed ISP naturally becomes the only variable that determines the final imaging effect. By then, it may be clear who will be the real number one in mobile phone imaging.