Samsung Announces 14nm FinFET for Exynos 7
by Joshua Ho on February 16, 2015 4:04 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- Tablets
- SoCs
While we've known about the existence of the Exynos 7420 for a while now, we didn't really know what to expect until recently. Today, it seems that Samsung is ready to start disclosing at least a few details about an upcoming Exynos 7 SoC, which is likely to be the Exynos 7420.
At a high level Exynos 7 will have four Cortex A57s clocked at 2.1 GHz, in addition to four Cortex A53s along with an LPDDR4-capable memory interface. According to Samsung Tomorrow, we can expect a 20% increase to device performance, which is likely a reference to clock speed, and 35% lower power consumption. In addition, there is a reference to a 30% productivity gain, which is likely to be referencing performance per watt. Samsung claims that these figures come from a comparison to their 20nm HKMG process, which we've examined before with the Exynos 5433 in the Note 4 Exynos review.
Although there is no direct statement of which version of 14nm is used for this upcoming Exynos 7 Octa, judging by how this is the first 14nm IC to come from Samsung it's likely that this SoC will use 14LPE, which focuses on reducing leakage and power consumption rather than switching speed.
Source: Samsung Tomorrow
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teiglin - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link
just remove the trailing period.phoenix_rizzen - Wednesday, February 18, 2015 - link
Ah, didn't notice that. Nifty graph!PC Perv - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link
Why is that "important?" Out of curiosity. Because that makes you feel like your xxxx is bigger?This is a serious question. No one is innocent in these marketing talk including Intel, yet only when Intel is perceived to be under threat, now it matters? Why? Because Samsung (or anyone else) will make x86 CPUs tomorrow? Or are there phones with Intel's 14nm SOCs?
What is "important?" There may be differences between each OEM's tech and nomenclature, but I do not see how that is "important" outside the marketing.
patrickjp93 - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link
There are now phones with Intel's SOCs, including the new Zen Phones and a few motorolas.r3loaded - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link
Intel has a "true" 14nm process though and it's already manufacturing chips for devices that are in consumers' hands right now. Samsung have simply announced 14nm, there'll be a long lead time from this announcement until those chips make their way into a shipping product. Intel's also had plenty of experience with FinFET designs from 22nm.The gap is certainly closing but Intel are still ahead. That said, there doesn't seem to be much time left until silicon itself runs out of steam somewhere in the 5nm range.
Krysto - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link
Not a long time. If the 7420 is also 14nm, then the device should appear in March, or April at most. Also keep in mind most 14nm Broadwell machines are just NOW coming out. Not to mention there's no 14nm Atom yet, and in case people around here have forgot Atom is the real competitor to ARM's chips, not Core i5 or even Core M (which costs much more and is still not suited for mobile use).And another thing. Intel could barely compete with ARM when it had half a node + FinFET ahead of ARM (22nm FinFET vs 28nm). Now Intel only has that half a node, at best (14 nm FinFET vs Samsung's 14nm FinFET).
kwrzesien - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link
I think Core M *will* be a competitor to ARM in the high-performance tablet market which is just blooming. It's where Intel needs to win vs ARM because they sure haven't managed to penetrate the cheap tablet or any kind of mobile phone market share.Krysto - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link
Not really. Here's why:1) ARM was never in the $1,000 "tablet" market.
2) Those "hybrids" or whatever you want to call them will just end up replacing laptops. So there's no real "gain" for Intel over ARM here.
sorten - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link
Apple (ARM) owns the $900 tablet market. Core M devices will compete with the iPad for consumer dollars.smilingcrow - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link
Have Samsung actually commented on whether these chips are in production and if so when we can expect to see them in devices or are you just speculating?