Samsung’s first chip manufactured using a 10nm FinFET process is coming soon.
The Samsung Exynos 9 Series 8895 processor is an octa-core chip that will likely be used in some models of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone, although the US version of the phone is expected to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip.
The company says the new Exynos 8895 processor offers up to 27 percent better performance while using 40 percent less power than its predecessors.
The Exynos 8895 chip features four custom Samsung CPU cores as well as four lower-power ARM Cortex-A53 CPU cores as well as ARM Mali-G71 graphics with support for 3D graphics and 4K virtual virtual reality experiences.
It supports video recording at up to 4K resolutions at 120 frames per second, and the chip has a Vision Processing Unit for tracking movement. That comes into play when creating panoramic images, using video tracking features, or machine vision applications.
Other features include an embedded Gigabit LTE modem with support for download speeds up to 1 Gbps, and a separate processing unit for secure mobile payments using fingerprint or iris recognition.
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5 Comments on "Samsung unveils 10nm Exynos 9 series chip (for Galaxy S8)"
Hmm, I wonder how these “Less efficient Samsung” 10nm process compares to the “Most efficient Intel” 14nm process.
I have a feeling Samsung is actually in the lead here.
Intel will have to wait until 2019 for their 7nm processes.
By that time other competitors GloFo/TSMC should also be jumping on the 10nm process, possibly even less efficient than Samsung’s process, and equivalent to Intel’s current FF-14+nm process.
This is good news for AMD, and third-party ARM chip producers.
Bad news for Intel, Nvidia, and Apple…. who compete with their wallets.
Of course, there’s a lot more to it than winning the race to 10nm. I’m more than happy to see AMD and Samsung providing more effective competition for Intel, since consumers should benefit. (Though I do own some shares in Intel, so I don’t want them to suffer too much!)
Do 10nm from Intel mean the same as 10nm from Samsung?
I don’t know enough to answer that question, but I suspect its not straightforward comparison.
No.
Intel doesn’t produce any 10nm yields yet.
They announced that they will stay on their current 14nm for a number of years, and instead continue towards 7nm yields shipped in 2019.
They have 14nm fabs, which is currently the industry’s best. Samsung is second in quality/efficiency but still worse. Other competitors like GoFo and TSMC have “14nm” fabs too but they’re far apart from efficiency and more like 16-18nm if you wanted to think numbers-wise.
Still the difference between Intel (best) and GloFo (worst) at 14nm isn’t THAT big today.
It’s nothing like when Intel had devices shipping with 22nm with FinFet technology, whilst most competitors were only then making the leap from 45nm to 32nm straight wafers.
Back then Intel had crushed:
– Apple A6X with their Core i7-3689Y
– AMD’s A10-5750M with their Core i7-3632QM
– AMD’s A10-6700 with their Core i7-3770K
– AMD’s FX-8370 with their Xeon E5-2667
…go figure