Last week, chipset maker MediaTek found itself at the centre of a controversy related to the benchmark cheating. A report alleged that MediaTek purportedly allowed OEMs to enable a “sports mode” in benchmark apps.
The so-called “sports mode” on the devices is believed to ramp up things like the memory controller and scheduler in order to facilitate faster performance.
In its defence, the company said that this was a common industry practice and that its “key competitor” was also guilty of this practice. While MediaTek didn’t directly name its arch rival Qualcomm, the “key competitor” part clearly hints at Qualcomm.
UP NEXT: Unlike the global variant, the Chinese version of the new Apple iPhone SE doesn’t come with eSIM support
The US-based Qualcomm has now issued a statement to Android Authority regarding this controversy. In the statement, the company denies whitelisting such benchmarking apps hack. It says: “Whitelisting refers to the technique of using the app name to determine whether to put the device into performance enhancement mode. The action of whitelisting a benchmark app is generally considered by the industry as cheating since it defeats the purpose of a benchmark, which is to reflect user experience for day to day use. Qualcomm does not whitelist.”
There’s a possibility that MediaTek could be referring to other chipset makers — Huawei and Samsung. However, both of them mostly make chipsets for their own smartphones and Samsung occasionally sells its chips to others. Thus, the only major direct competitor to MediaTek remains Qualcomm.
The controversy comes at a time when Taiwan-based MediaTek is making a comeback into the market with some great chipsets such as MediaTek Helio G-series and the new Dimensity 1000 flagship processor.
UP NEXT: Nubia Play features hexagonal camera and curved screen; up for pre-order in China via JD.com
(Source)
