Chipmaker MediaTek has just showcased its upcoming developments in terms of SoCs, generative AI, and other ventures at the ongoing MWC 2024 in Barcelona, Spain. The company also unveiled its Dimensity Auto Cockpit, which enables smart connectivity in cars and vehicles.
And there’s so much more. Therefore, we have curated some of the best MediaTek announcements at MWC 2024 for you to check out. Have a look.
Dimensity Auto Cockpit
MediaTek is popular for its consumer-grade chipsets and telecom solutions but the company has been actively exploring other segments as well. The Dimensity Auto Cockpit is a concept that brings together all of MediaTek’s expertise in chip-making, smart displays, and navigation, and even brings 5G connectivity to cars.
This system will use an AI multi-processor equipped with a deep learning accelerator (MDLA) and a vision processing unit (MVPU). In simple terms, MediaTek’s technologies will equip your car with multiple cameras, microphones, and AI-ready chipsets to bring features like the Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) and help cars communicate with each other in real-time.
We have already seen how effective ADAS systems are with cars like the Mahindra XUV 700 and the Honda City in India. While it’s not as good as the full self-driving (FSD) found in Tesla cars, ADAS is extremely helpful in maintaining lanes on highways and reducing driver fatigue. MediaTek aims to improve the system to an extent where cars will have direct satellite connectivity for navigation and the internet.
Ray Tracing Gaming on Smartphones
MediaTek’s latest flagship chipset, the Dimensity 9300 comes equipped with the Arm Immortalis G720 GPU, which is capable of ray tracing in gaming at full 60fps. The company demonstrated some games at its MWC booth with and without RTX.
With ray tracing enabled, the in-game mechanics feel much more realistic, narrowing the gap between smartphone and console gaming. The tech is so good that gamers will have to evolve their in-game strategies by adapting to RTX, especially in scenarios where their position can be revealed to the enemy due to the real-time casting of shadows with ray tracing.
Although there are not enough smartphone games that support ray tracing as of now, it surely brightens the future of smartphone gaming.
On-Device AI Features
MediaTek’s latest processors like the Dimensity 9300 support on-device AI, without needing connectivity to the cloud servers. As of now, Meta’s LlaMa 2 7B LLM is supported that can generate text using AI, locally on the smartphone. It also supports video diffusion, which can create videos from static images using generative AI.
MediaTek is also partnering with smartphone companies like OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi to create OEM-specific AI features. For example, the Vivo X100 Pro can animate portraits and animals using the 7th Gen APU on the Dimensity 9300. It can also selectively erase objects from images using the AI eraser tool on the OPPO Find X7 Ultra. The Redmi K70E can expand the background of static images using AI, powered by the Dimensity 8300 chipset.
5G-enabled CPE Fixed Wireless Access Points
In collaboration with India-based Himachal Futuristic Communications Limited (HFCL), MediaTek has unveiled a new set of 5G-enabled fixed wireless access points (FWA) that can bring broadband-like internet connectivity to rural areas. These devices connect to 5G networks and a single access point can provide internet to multiple homes with speeds of over 1Gbps. These are powered by the MediaTek T750 chip.
FWA’s are slowly picking up pace in India as Jio and Airtel have been expanding their AirFiber services nationwide. Apart from high-speed internet access, these FWA units also offer WiFi 6, 4×4 MIMO, and a mobile app for device management.
Real-Time Animation
MediaTek also showcased an interesting concept where its systems can generate animations in real time from any subject. The company conducted a small demo at its MWC booth where we could create our animated avatar using AI. Although the commercial availability of this technology was not disclosed, the concept has vast applications in CGI and the entertainment industry.
Modern smartphones are also slowly becoming capable of generating videos from still images. However, real-time animation remains a complex task, which requires high computing resources. MediaTek aims to make this process more efficient with generative AI.
