In the IT world, especially when it comes to hardware-related fields, the transparency of information is not as confidential as laymen think. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Software-only companies can keep everything secret before the product is released, and finally make a surprise attack with new features when it goes live, earning a window of several months or even just a month.

Hardware companies, such as those that make mobile phones, will more or less be searched by their opponents through the search of patent layout, and their recent main research and development direction will be found out in advance.

For example, if Apple buys a patent license for a new antenna, or registers its own patent for a new charging technology, then it means that these technologies are likely to be used in the next generation of iPhone products.

It is possible to lay out new patents, but not for the time being. But it is absolutely impossible to use new technology, but not to lay out patents, or even to make patented submarines.

Because of the searchability of the patent layout, hardware companies are much more transparent than pure software companies on the question of "what is it doing now".

Based on this principle, although the iPhone4 has not yet been released, after all, its research and development work has lasted for more than half a year, during this period, not only Hatsune Intelligence will guess the direction of change of the iPhone4, but other competitors will also.

In the same way, what the "Chuxin 2" that the Hatsune Group is doing will also be speculated by opponents.

In such a hazy environment, it is impossible for mobile phone design not to learn from the advantages of peers.

From Feng Guorong and Zhang Tuohai's reports to Gu Mojie, you can hear this trend.

……

In the conference room, with the encouragement of Gu Mojie, Leslie Fung expounded the original design intention of the second generation of Chuxin:

"To be honest, looking back now, the original first-generation mobile phone we took out a year ago is just a stepping stone for the company to pursue squeezing into the field of first-line mainstream brand machines. That thing is to solve the question of 'whether it is or not' for the company first, and then it is the turn of 'whether it is good or not'.

In terms of design, we were quite modest-minded and conservative at that time. If we want to talk about the technical advantages and design characteristics of the first generation of Chuxin, we can only summarize the four dimensions of minimalism, refinement, atmosphere and stability.

The interface, appearance, and operation are all products of minimalism, which is convenient and quick to use, and there is no need to read the manual. The screen display is delicate and delicate, and it is not inferior to Apple in the same generation of products, second only to Samsung; The accuracy and coupling of various sensors is also world-class.

As for the atmosphere and stability, there is nothing to say, and the RF technology uses Xia Wei's calibration and antenna. Although the comprehensive signal performance of the whole machine has no advantage in the face of traditional mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia, it ranks first among smart phone brands.

Now, we have the original intention of 1 foundation, after a year of domestic market running-in test, collected enough user feedback big data and stress test, so in the second generation, we should have more confidence to experiment with more fancy and enterprising new technologies. ”

Speaking of this, he bowed his head slightly and observed Gu Mojie's expression. Seeing that Gu Mojie was noncommittal, he continued to speak.

In fact, these things were said at the project establishment meeting more than half a year ago, but Gu Mojie didn't listen to them much at that time. If Gu Mojie really raises objections now, it is undoubtedly equivalent to knocking down some of the foundations of the research and development work of the second generation of the original heart for most of the year, and Gu Mojie will not do that kind of thing so brainlessly.

"On the basis of the original intention 1, the main improvement direction of the 2nd generation we set at that time includes these aspects: first of all, screen display technology. According to the intelligence, Apple obviously has a high probability of using the Retina standard 'retina screen' on the iPhone4, and its pixel density will be about 320ppi, a screen of about 3.5 inches, and the resolution can reach 960*640 - Apple has not released this data, which is our guess. ”

When Feng Guorong said this, Gu Mojie immediately interrupted him.

"Isn't there any intelligence to back it up? Just guesswork? On what basis? ”

Feng Guorong replied confidently: "Because the Apple on the iPhone-3GS is still 480*320, the PPI is only more than 160." Only by replacing the original single pixel with a 2*2 dot matrix in equal proportions can the inheritance of Apple's touch algorithm be maintained. Otherwise, other software vendors will go crazy with the apps they have developed for iOS! ”

Gu Mojie went through it in his mind and confirmed: "So, when Apple defined the iOS operating system, it once defined two different variables, 'point' and 'pixel', for the underlying algorithm of the touch part?" ”

"Of course, the point defined by Apple on the control side is 480*320, and the pixels on the display side and the touch measurement point are two sets of independent quantities, to the iphone4, it is estimated that there will be 2*2 pixels corresponding to a 'point'."

"That's what we did when we wrote Android, right?" Gu Mojie asked a little nervously, and he couldn't remember some of the original historical questions clearly.

Feng Guorong continued to answer affirmatively: "Yes, and the default control side of Android's system 'point' is defined according to the 800*450 resolution of our 'Chuxin 1', and the display pixels can be turned up according to the integer multiple of 800*450."

So, in the future, we have an advantage in all the Android fields. We define Android's 'controllable point' as a 16:9 aspect ratio, not Apple's iOS 3:2, which is wider by default. And other Android manufacturers if the hardware screen is not 16:9 aspect ratio, when touching the freeze and error will be more obvious than our original intention.

If they don't do the step of 'packing pixels into dots' when increasing the screen resolution, they can rely on the system's automatic conversion algorithm. Then it means that when other Android machines touch the screen, the internal friction of system computing resources will be more serious than ours. ”

Listening to Feng Guorong's words, Gu Mojie's heart fell to the ground.

The touch of the iPhone in parallel time and space feels particularly smooth and does not freeze, which is actually related to the fact that the corresponding definition between its "pixels on the display side" and "points on the control side" is relatively brief and regular. In the Android system, because the aspect ratio and pixel ratio parameters of each screen are messy, the nested algorithm is more complicated, which eventually leads to Caton.

Nowadays, the input/output standard of Android is done by Hatsune to guide Google, and Hatsune naturally knows how to specify the hardware resolution and touch points of the mobile phone to be the most efficient.

In the future, the resolution of the original mobile phone must be an integer multiple of 800*450, which reduces the internal friction of the input algorithm to a minimum.

After turning his mind, Gu Mojie continued to ask: "Then what is the pixel density of our current 'Chuxin 2' design?" Is the resolution also 2*2 to replace a point? The PPI is a bit high, is it possible to achieve the existing technology? ”

Feng Guorong shrugged: "There is no way, I can only double the length and width of the resolution, so that it is 1600*900." Theoretically, if we still use the 4.2-inch screen, the PPI will reach a terrifying 437. At present, even if you use Samsung, LG or Sharp screens, it is difficult to achieve this data.

So the final result of our discussion was to expand the screen size of the second-generation machine to 5 inches, which is about 20% higher than the 4.2-inch screen of the first-generation machine. In this way, the PPI will be reduced to 367 accordingly, which is within the acceptable range of the current PPI of the highest-end civilian panel in Japan and South Korea, and it will not have too much redundant performance. ”

When Steve Jobs boasted that "a 300ppi mobile phone screen can achieve a completely realistic state in which the human retina cannot distinguish particles", there are actually conditions attached to the sentence.

That is, "when the mobile phone is used, the screen is about 1 foot away from the eye" - this can also be understood, why when defining the retina screen of a laptop, the PPI requirements will be reduced to more than 200, and when defining HDTV-level HDTV, it will be further reduced to 70~80 (60-inch TV, only 1920*1080 resolution)

Because when people use the computer, the distance between the screen and the eyes is significantly farther than the distance between the screen and the eyes of the mobile phone. As for watching TV, people sit farther away. The farther the distance, the lower the saturation requirement for PPI naturally.

After understanding this principle, it can be seen that it is not that the PPI of mobile phones exceeds 300 and "invariably exceeds the resolution ability of the human eye".

It can only be said that when you hold the phone to a foot away in front of you, 300ppi is enough. But if you take a closer look at a place only 20 centimeters away from your eyes, or if you meet a pilot-level person with a vision of 5.3, then the PPI redundancy of the Chuxin 2nd generation can obviously come in handy.

At least at this distance, the pilot's eyesight can see that the iPhone4's 326ppi screen is grainy, while the Chuxin 2's 367ppi screen is not.

The money spent on this extra part of the performance will not be spent in vain.

"That's good, the first generation of Chuxin has mastered the basic disk of the mid-range machine for the company, and the next 2 generations will come out, and the 1st generation will not be discontinued immediately. Therefore, there is no need to be afraid of the high cost and price of the second generation, as long as the performance is the world's first-class, we believe that the market is no problem - so, in the end, our 367ppi screen, which technology and materials are used? ”

"Samsung, LG, Sharp, we have tried all three, and we have done three sets of structural coupling tests according to different materials. At present, the major manufacturers on the market that can achieve IPS above 300ppi are left with these 3 companies except for JDI (Sony/Toshiba United, and later Sony mobile phones are also supplied with JDI). ”

Different from what everyone thinks, Apple doesn't have anything of its own awesome in hardware, in fact, Apple is more often an integrator, and screen display, LED-related technology, the best is still Japanese and Korean manufacturers.

In other words, Americans are just playing minimalism, which really involves the technology of "product appearance", and the most dense in the world is Japan and South Korea.

"The current cooperation model is only direct procurement? Don't have a patent licensing layout? There is no risk of getting stuck in the future, right? Gu Mojie asked such a question.

Faced with this question, Feng Guorong wanted to speak again and again, but after glancing at Zhang Tuohai, the latter replied:

"At present, they are all strategic procurement. If you just supply the screen for the new phone, there will be no risk in the future. However, we are still planning some 'follow-up patents developed based on the technical threshold of the other party', and after we publish the follow-up patents, we may be restricted by the higher-level patents. ”

Gu Mojie's expression tightened: "Tell me to be specific." ”

"Okay, that's mainly related to the following technological innovation." Zhang Tuohai took over the conversation without humility or arrogance.

(Note: Retina screen is a display with patented technology owned by Apple, including some patents at the standard definition level.) Theoretically, it can't be bypassed. However, Retina screen is not the only definition standard for retina, and the high-resolution density screen extended by other companies based on IPS screen technology can theoretically be called a retina screen as long as it is close to 300ppi pixel density. (To be continued.) )