Cirrus Logic 成功進(jìn)駐蘋果(Apple)即將上市新產(chǎn)品的消息，無疑讓同業(yè)們又羨又妒；在加入這個行列之前，讓我們先思考幾個問題：Cirrus Logic進(jìn)駐Apple新產(chǎn)品，是取代了其它芯片公司嗎(如Dialog Semiconductor)？Cirrus Logic的音頻芯片是無可替代的特別嗎？競爭對手若想把Cirrus Logic從蘋果產(chǎn)品踢出來，能采取什么方法？ 手機(jī)用的音頻芯片供應(yīng)商當(dāng)然不只有 Cirrus Logic 一家，其競爭對手包括了Dialog Semiconductor 、Wolfson Microelectronics 、Maxim以及TI；在這些廠商中，Dialog的芯片也跟Cirrus一樣是Apple產(chǎn)品內(nèi)的“常客”，不過非音頻芯片、而是電源管理芯片。Dialog與Cirrus在Apple的數(shù)代產(chǎn)品中都占據(jù)一席之地。 在 此同時，Maxim被市場研究機(jī)構(gòu)Forward Concepts總經(jīng)理Will Strauss譽(yù)為“手機(jī)電源管理/音頻芯片第一把交椅”；TI則緊追在Maxim之后(可能與大客戶Nokia有關(guān))。這兩家芯片廠商雖然都強(qiáng)調(diào)其音頻芯片的優(yōu)越性能(高音頻品質(zhì)、低功耗)，他們的策略走向卻稍有不同。 根據(jù)Strauss的觀察，目前手機(jī)音頻芯片設(shè)計的趨勢是將放大器整合其中，而且大多數(shù)的手機(jī)產(chǎn)品都已經(jīng)具備音頻編解碼功能(由DSP提供)；或是有的廠商會把音頻芯片與電源管理單元整合在一起。他指 出，Cirrus應(yīng)該就是把電源管理功能整合進(jìn)音頻芯片，才成功取代了Dialog在Apple產(chǎn)品中的地位。 對此，Cirrus音頻產(chǎn)品部門銷售總監(jiān)Carl Alberty 在接受 EETimes美國版采訪時卻表示：“那并非我們的目標(biāo)；我們所整合的是能最佳化音頻組件電源管理的功能，并非系統(tǒng)級的電源管理方案?！敝劣?Dialog，則是出人意料地在自家電源管理芯片(PMIC)內(nèi)，整合了音頻功能。 Dialog從去年起就為Samsung 在中國市場推出的TD-SCDMA智能手機(jī)，提供系統(tǒng)級的電源管理方案與低功耗音頻芯片；該公司最近宣布，其整合了音頻功能的第二款電源管理芯片成功進(jìn) 駐了Samsung鎖定全球市場的智能手機(jī)平臺。Dialog聲稱，其在單一封裝內(nèi)整合系統(tǒng)級電源管理功能以及低功耗D類音頻電路的方案，能大幅節(jié)省功耗與電路板空間。 針對Dialog整合電源管理與音頻功能的芯片方案，Cirrus的Alberty表示：“我們當(dāng)然有關(guān)注該產(chǎn)品，但我們未看到它有足夠的價值；有一些客戶可能會喜歡那樣的方案。也許稱之為“the-jack-of-all-trades”(什么都會、但沒有 一樣是精通的)方案不甚公平，總之那并非我們的興趣所在?！惫P者幫他解釋一下…意思就是，反正Apple就是沒有采用。 另一家手機(jī)音頻芯片供貨商Wolfson，在6月時宣布其WM1811音頻中樞芯片獲得Samsung的Galaxy S III智能手機(jī)采用；該款芯片內(nèi)含立體聲編碼器與三個數(shù)字音頻接口。Wolfson也開發(fā)了一款更高階的音頻SoC WM5100 ，整合了噪聲/回音消除DSP；該公司表示，為提升產(chǎn)品聲音品質(zhì)，有越來越多的手機(jī)與平板裝置是將音頻功能從應(yīng)用處理器中獨(dú)立出來。 有 這么多其它競爭對手都有看來不錯的手機(jī)音頻芯片方案，Cirrus的Alberty仍認(rèn)為自家產(chǎn)品是無法取代的；他表示，除了以低功耗提供高品質(zhì)音頻，該 公司的音頻芯片還在小體積的芯片內(nèi)整合了包括電容、電阻、耳機(jī)與喇叭驅(qū)動器等等被動組件，最重要的是：“我們與客戶之間擁有深厚的關(guān)系?！倍宜麄兛闪⒓?提供客戶所需要的芯片設(shè)計。 Alberty表示，Cirrus持續(xù)努力最佳化音頻解決方案的功耗，在芯片架構(gòu)設(shè)計上的所有改變都必定是有所意義的；舉例來說，該公司最近提出了一種改善智能型手機(jī)音量的方法，隨著該類裝置外觀越來越薄，音箱(acoustic chamber)空間被壓縮，使得喇叭的品質(zhì)低落：“我們讓音頻芯片上的放大器能以比電池允許的更高電壓運(yùn)作，從而放大智能手機(jī)音量。” 而 無論是盲從地追隨整合風(fēng)潮，還是為音頻芯片內(nèi)的DSP核心開發(fā)更先進(jìn)的算法，都不能保證任何一家音頻芯片供貨商取得不敗地位，特別是當(dāng)這些業(yè)者都得看大 客戶的臉色時。有一個實際案例是，據(jù)今年稍早傳出的消息，Apple本來打算取得智能手機(jī)噪聲抑制/回音消除芯片供貨商Audience的授權(quán)，將后者 技術(shù)整合A5 處理器，但又取消了這項交易。 當(dāng)時Apple為何想把Audience的技術(shù)整合至A5，而不是用 Cirrus的音頻芯片支持那些功能，值得玩味；但在當(dāng)時沒有分析師預(yù)料到Cirrus成功進(jìn)駐Apple新產(chǎn)品。想盡辦法擠下Cirrus搶進(jìn) Apple產(chǎn)品，是一件值得冒險的事嗎？對此Semico分析師Rich Wawrzyniak不以為然，他認(rèn)為要贏得Apple青睞，就得以更低價格提供更佳功能：“那可能是得不償失的勝利?！? 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 編譯：Judith Cheng 參考英文原文：Replace Cirrus’ design slots in Apple? Fuhgeddaboudit!，by Junko Yoshida

相關(guān)閱讀：
• 成功的金科玉律：解讀蘋果供應(yīng)商名單
• 產(chǎn)業(yè)鏈分析，蘋果供應(yīng)商名單全曝光
• HTC出新招抗蘋果，換供應(yīng)商避專利糾紛F75esmc

{pagination} Replace Cirrus’ design slots in Apple? Fuhgeddaboudit! Junko Yoshida Cirrus Logic’s big design wins with Apple’s upcoming products is, unquestionably, the envy of many in the electronics industry.But before climbing onto the Cirrus-envy bandwagon, let’s ask a few questions. NEW YORK -- Cirrus Logic’s big design wins with Apple’s upcoming products is, unquestionably, the envy of many in the electronics industry. But before climbing onto the Cirrus-envy bandwagon, let’s ask a few questions anyway: · Is Cirrus Logic expanding its design sockets in Apple’s new products at the expense of another chip company, like Dialog Semiconductor? · Are Cirrus Logic audio chips so special that there are no alternatives? · What would take for Cirrus Logic’s competitors to unseat Cirrus Logic’s socket in Apple? When it comes to audio chips for mobile phones, Cirrus Logic isn’t the only game in town. Cirrus Logic’s competitors include: Dialog Semiconductor; Wolfson Microelectronics; Maxim; and Texas Instruments. Among these vendors, Dialog has been as much an Apple captive as Cirrus. For Apple’s design sockets, Dialog has been picked for its power management chip, while Cirrus is Apple’s supplier of choice for its audio codec chip. The two companies have kept their design-in slots in Apple products for a couple of generations now. Meanwhile, Maxim is considered “the number one merchant market supplier of cellphone Power Management Unit/audio chips, slightly trailing Qualcomm,” according to Will Strauss, president of Forward Concepts, a market research firm based in Tempe, Ariz. Qualcomm is a captive supplier for its own cellphone chips. “TI is the number two in that merchant market (probably because of Nokia), only slightly behind Maxim,” he added. Although each vendor claims audio chip’s superiority (high audio quality at low power), their strategies tread slightly different paths. A general trend among audio ICs used in mobile handsets, however, is that “audio amplifiers are already included with audio chip; and most cellphones have implemented audio codecs (yes, including DSP capability); and they are integrating it on the same chip as power management units (PMUs),” observed Forward Concepts’ Strauss. Could Cirrus “unseat” Dialog? Strauss suggested that Cirrus, presumably, could add power management functions onto its own audio chip, paving the way to unseat Dialog in Apple’s design sockets. However, “That’s not our focus,” said Carl Alberty, director of marketing for Cirrus’ Audio Division in an interview with EE Times on Monday (August 6th). “We integrate features that intelligently optimize the power management of our [audio] device, but we don’t do a system-level power management,” he added. In contrast, Dialog is hanging its hat on the integration of audio into its own power management IC (PMIC). Dialog has been shipping since last year system-level power management and low-power audio ICs for Samsung’s TD-SCDMA based smartphones in China. Dialog recently announced that its second PMIC including integrated audio has won Samsung’s global Smartphone platform design socket. Dialog attributes its success to the company’s ability to combine “in a single package or monolithically integrating, highly complex system power management functionality that is fully configurable for multiple platforms, together with low power class D audio.” The upshot for Dialog’s solution is “significant power and board space savings,” while delivering the highest quality audio for Samsung’s new smartphones, according to the company. Cirrus, whose largest customer is Apple, demurs from that view. Asked about Dialog’s PMIC with integrated audio, Alberty said, “We absolutely looked at it, but we are not seeing enough value in it.” He added, “There is a class of customers who may prefer that. Calling it ‘the-jack-of-all-trades approach’ may not be fair to [Dialog], but it isn’t what we are interested in.” Translation: Apple says, “No.” Are audio chips interchangeable? Meanwhile, Forward Concepts’ Strauss noted that Wolfson, which made its name as the lowest-power audio D/A chips for the cellphone market, has dominated that narrow segment. But the company is beefing up its capabilities. Wolfson, in late June, announced that its WM1811 audio hub IC is being used in Samsung’s Galaxy S III smart phones. While that chip is a stereo codec with three digital audio interfaces, Wolfson also developed a much more ambitious audio system-on-a-chip, designated as WM5100 -- integrated with noise/echo-cancelling DSP. With the WM5100, the company is offering what used to be several different chips – an audio hub, a separate DSP, a noise cancellation IC – in one chip. Wolfson’s audio SoCs come from an idea that “audio components in mobile phones and tablet PCs are increasingly becoming dis-integrated from the application processor,” according to the company. While that may be so, decisions on how much more features an audio chip in a smartphone should pack in aren't made by chip vendors alone. Are any of these audio chips from different suppliers interchangeable? “Absolutely not,” said Cirrus’ Alberty. Cirrus takes pride in offering high-quality audio at lowest power, “without compromising the performance, he noted. The company also integrates into its audio chip numerous components like capacitors, resisters, headphone and speaker drivers and a host of passive components, to deliver “super small form factor.” But in the end, what makes Cirrus’ chip not interchangeable with others comes down to one thing: “the depth of the relationship we have with our customers,” said Alberty. “You need to be able to execute [the plan and the technology] to the day” – meaning delivering a new chip that works, on the day it promised, not a day later. Alberty said Cirrus is constantly looking at ways to optimize the power consumption of its audio solution. They look at blocks around its audio IC, they get rid of things on the audio chip, partition or sequence the tasks on the chip differently. But all these changes must result in meaningful improvements, he added. For instance, Cirrus recently talked about a way to improve the volume of a smartphone. As a smartphone gets thinner and thinner, the acoustic chamber is getting squeezed, thus deteriorating the quality of its speaker. “We are enabling an amplifier on our audio chip to run at higher voltage than the battery allows. It lets the smartphone offer louder expression.” Apple-Audience However, either blindly following the integration path or running more advanced algorithms on the DSP core inside the audio chip is not exactly a sure way to give any audio chip supplier a competitive edge, especially when the supplier waits at the beck and call of its biggest customer. The case in point is Apple’s licensing of Audience, a leading supplier of noise suppression and echo cancellation chips in the smartphone market. Linley Gwennap at the Linley Group wrote earlier this year that Apple cut a deal with Audience to integrate Audience’s noise-reduction custom logic directly into Apple’s own A5 processor, which is used in the iPhone 4S. It’s interesting that Apple decided to include Audience’s technology on the A5 processor, instead of running it on Cirrus Logic’s audio chip. No analysts go so far as predicting that Cirrus’ deal with Apple is sealed. But asked whether it is worth the trouble for anyone to go out of its way to unseat Cirrus in Apple’s products, Rich Wawrzyniak, senior analyst at Semico Research, said: “Probably not.” Whie Wawrzyniak does not believe Cirrus’ audio chip is terribly complex, he believes that gunning for Apple’s sockets (‘when Cirrus already has them’) could require a lot of resources. “You need to come up with something much better at a lower price.” A win so costly could turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory.