Chinese smartphone big Oppo revealed its first in-house chipset at its annual innovation occasion hosted in Shenzhen on Tuesday. The MariSilicon X chip introduced — named after the Mariana Trench — is a neural processing unit that goals to spice up picture and video efficiency by means of machine studying.

The transfer provides Oppo to a listing of smartphone makers which might be designing their very own chips, corresponding to Apple. The MariSilicon venture, headed by Qualcomm veteran Jiang Bo, began solely in 2019.

The silicon is being manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC)’s 6-nanometer course of expertise and will likely be featured in Oppo’s upcoming flagship handset within the first quarter of 2022. The ongoing world chip scarcity is not going to have an effect on the manufacturing of MariSilicon X, Jiang instructed the press on the occasion.

Oppo additionally unveiled the third technology of its self-developed sensible glasses, dubbing it an “assisted reality” system as an alternative of an augmented actuality one.

The description is apt. The headpiece, which weighs simply 30g, is harking back to Google Glass. It makes use of the Snapdragon 4100 chip, which is generally present in smartwatches, and it’s certainly restricted to projecting 2D info corresponding to navigation and translation onto its 1.3mm-thick glasses. It works as an extension of 1’s smartphone, or like a smartwatch with a display in entrance of 1’s eyes, moderately than an AR system that’s conscious of 1’s surroundings. It’s slated to ship subsequent spring.

Oppo’s new ‘assisted actuality glasses

The third piece of product unveiled is Oppo’s first folding telephone, which got here a 12 months after its idea scrolling telephone. Details of the folding telephone will likely be introduced tomorrow, at which level we’ll replace the story accordingly.

What we all know thus far is the brand new telephone is spearheaded by Pete Lau, Oneplus’s co-founder who was appointed Oppo’s chief product officer after OnePlus turned Oppo’s subbrand this 12 months.

Both owned by the BKK Electronics empire, OnePlus and Oppo shared a provide chain previous to the merger however had been working independently. The merger has seen the 2 telephone makers combining operational and R&D forces, together with their working techniques, whereas the manufacturers stay separate.

OnePlus’s different co-founder, Carl Pei, has been drumming up buzz for his new earbud enterprise Nothing, which has received over buyers and a horde of early followers.