Code name “Mariana Plan”. Oppo wants to create chips for smartphones and faced with the magnitude of the task, the brand has decided to name its project after one of the deepest ocean regions in the world. This project was revealed to the brand’s employees in an internal communication made a few days ago, which the Chinese site Cnbeta was able to consult.
With Mariana, Oppo is out of the question of creating calculation processors and other graphics chips. His intention is indeed to continue working with Qualcomm and MediaTek using their computing chips, as specified by one of the deputies of the Oppo CEO, Tony Chen.
“ Qualcomm and MediaTek have always been and remain partners with which Oppo maintains good relations. We will continue to work with them. We just want to broaden our horizons of skills ”
Oppo would like to design SoC (System on Chip) chips but in the fields of image processing, video and even AI. Components that ” would improve the user experience “. A bit like Google does in the Pixel with its Pixel Visual Core and Neural Core chip which is manufactured by Intel.
Oppo made its market with its cousins
The working group formed by Oppo is chaired by a former technical manager of Qualcomm and the other members were recruited from MediaTek and, more surprisingly, from OnePlus and Realme which are part of the same group (BBK). Everyone would have been at work for several weeks in order to quickly propose concepts and projects in the vein of the Oppo M1, a coprocessor whose brand had been registered in Europe last November.
It is not excluded, that in the long term, Oppo seeks to develop its own SoC of calculation (like Huawei with its subsidiary HiSilicon) but for the moment, this does not seem to be on the agenda.
This initiative was born following the announcement of the CEO of Oppo indicating that he would invest 60 billion yuan (almost 8 billion euros) over the next three years to accelerate research and development within the business. Another way to protect against possible American sanctions in case Oppo joins Huawei on the US blacklist?