Samsung to produce Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 chips on its 14nm FinFET process

14 January, 2016
It is now clear that the Snapdragon 820 will be produced using the same second generation 14nm FinFET technology, used for the Exynos 8 Octa family.

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  • Lex79
  • gL@
  • 19 Jan 2016

Denis XD, 19 Jan 2016lex I'm not a closeminded fan, there are things I don't agr... moreTrue, it was. But I think 2015 was also a bit of a disappointing year in terms of performance for Android at the high end, and that was mainly due to the majority of OEM's offerings being based around a chipset series that at the end of the day, underperformed.

Ok the 808 didn't really do anything wrong per se, but neither does it offer any real performance advantages over the 805. The 810 however, I think most people would now agree was quite the disappointment, I won't go as far as to say it is broken or faulty or any of that, but it definitely didn't live to it's promise.

2016, should be a much better year in these regards I think.

    Lex79, 18 Jan 2016And refreshingly, for once I agree with you, and I have hig... morelex I'm not a closeminded fan, there are things I don't agree with you but I'm not a kid to always argue. As much as I like Z5 yeah, I would love 820 in it. I don't care about how fast it is or better, but the battery performance and improved camera capabilities thanks to it are a different thing. Let's wait and see how it will go this year, 15 was quite a competition.

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      • Lex79
      • Lh@
      • 18 Jan 2016

      Denis XD, 18 Jan 2016I agree. Heatdragon 810 made them look bad when they were d... moreAnd refreshingly, for once I agree with you, and I have high hopes for the 820.

      From what I have read about the new kryo cores comes, it appears they will offer a significant improvement in performance and efficiency over the A57, and the Adreno 530 sounds like absolute beast.

      Qualcomm also appear to have made improvements in virtually all other areas of the SOC (isp, dsp etc.) so at the moment, things are looking hopeful.

      I certainly think 2016's crop of Android flagships based around the 820 are going to offer much better performance values than 2015's 810 based examples did.

      And yes that includes Sony's offerings :) you know I'm an not the number one Sony fan, but if you were to take the Z5 as is, and just swap the 810 for the 820, then that would be a smartphone I would really like to take a look at.

        Lex79, 14 Jan 2016Should be, I think a lot of the issue's with the 810 were d... moreI agree. Heatdragon 810 made them look bad when they were doing great. It's that then didn't entirely finish the chipset to make sure it was as it ment to be.
        They won't fail this time because they can't. 810 was bad for their reputation they can't mess up again.

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          • AnonD-296885
          • 641
          • 17 Jan 2016

          Lex79, 16 Jan 2016So Samsung are not straying to far from the reference A72 w... moreYes, the cores are similar in overall but different in details. That's what Anandtech says.

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            • AnonD-296885
            • 641
            • 17 Jan 2016

            Lex79, 16 Jan 2016Yeah, your right about that. That could be down to superior... moreNo, that isn't software. The issue is physical implementation which is one of the crucial factors of the sucsess. Qualcomm wasn't ready to implement A57/A53 cores and didn't have any own 64 bit analogs. And the 20 Nm process just nade everything look worse.

            But I can't call Exynos 5433 stellar either. Again the situation is Qualcomm-like, and it was supposed to have A15/A7 cores, not A57/A53. But Samsung just had more experience with inplementing biglittle and Cortex CPUs (and A15 doesn't differ a lot from A57). Only that saved Samsung from a fail.

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              • Lex79
              • Lh@
              • 16 Jan 2016

              AnonD-296885, 16 Jan 2016Kryo is a derivative from Krait, Mingoose is almost the sam... moreSo Samsung are not straying to far from the reference A72 with their mongoose design, just enough to be considered 'proprietary' ????

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                • Lex79
                • Lh@
                • 16 Jan 2016

                AnonD-296885, 16 Jan 2016Exynos 5433 with A57 on 20 Nm works well. SD810 was an e... moreYeah, your right about that. That could be down to superior and more efficient thermal management protocols on the Eynos, with the Snapdragon it seems to be a far more immediate process.

                i.e. The TMP's in the SD810 in most cases tend to allow the chip to run wild for around a minute or so, and then very quickly throttle the hell out of it, the Exynos by contrast seems take are more balanced and gradual approach.

                Would like see some figures on what the kind sustainable performance the 5433 offers when compared to other 20nm A57/A53 SOC's.

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                  • AnonD-296885
                  • gx3
                  • 16 Jan 2016

                  AnonD-75819, 14 Jan 2016Both are moving away from ARM architecture. Does this mean ... moreKryo is a derivative from Krait, Mingoose is almost the same as A72 from ARM. Just more control of their systems on the chip.

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                    • AnonD-296885
                    • gx3
                    • 16 Jan 2016

                    Lex79, 14 Jan 2016Should be, I think a lot of the issue's with the 810 were d... moreExynos 5433 with A57 on 20 Nm works well.

                    SD810 was an engineering fail made in a hurry to match Samsung and Apple 64bit designs.

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                      • mas39
                      • MJS
                      • 15 Jan 2016

                      Anonymous, 14 Jan 2016i can "smell" early version of 820 maybe have heat issue l... moreHow do you know this will happen, they're now using their own architecture again so there won't be a problem. I have the s800 and s801 in my Z Ultra and Z3 Tablet Compact and there has never been a problem of overheating. Please don't try and stir up trouble, if you have evidence then that's fine otherwise just don't say anything OK!

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                        • Anonymous
                        • XMp
                        • 15 Jan 2016

                        .alpha, 14 Jan 2016So Apple will have the better TSMC 16nm process?You srstly believe 16 is better than 14? That info came from chinese media(where tsmc from) which consumer report said its not true. So you rather trust chinese media over consumer report?

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                          • lashton
                          • vpg
                          • 14 Jan 2016

                          AnonD-145045, 14 Jan 2016Nobody is moving away from ARM architecture, there are just... more"So using RISC makes them custom ARM based cores..." ARM is a technology in this case NOT a company!

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                            • AnonD-145045
                            • Hkt
                            • 14 Jan 2016

                            AnonD-75819, 14 Jan 2016Both are moving away from ARM architecture. Does this mean ... moreNobody is moving away from ARM architecture, there are just moving away from ARM designed cores, and in the case of Samsung that isn't fully the case either.....

                            They are using ARM architecture which uses RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) instruction architecture to build their custom cores... So using RISC makes them custom ARM based cores...

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                              • .alpha
                              • 9Aw
                              • 14 Jan 2016

                              So Apple will have the better TSMC 16nm process?

                                AnonD-75819, 14 Jan 2016Both are moving away from ARM architecture. Does this mean ... moreI feel this needs a bit of clarification. ARM in itself can't really be blamed for heating problems as it is in essence an architecture. Implementing it, however, is a whole different story and that is where problems happen.

                                To be even more precise, however, in the case of the infamous Snapdragon 810 it was a combination of pushing clock speeds too high and having some problems with heat management, which also relates to the manufacturing process.

                                Hope this clears things up a bit. ARM is most definitely here to stay, until anything better comes along, at least.

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                                  • AnonD-130610
                                  • Tqc
                                  • 14 Jan 2016

                                  AnonD-370043, 14 Jan 2016yes i agree with u its better for Qualcomm to use TSMC or I... moreLow quality, or high standards of quality, hum? You think Samsung Korean quality is inferior to TSMC Taiwanese quality? Both are more or less of the same quality standards. Don't underestimate Samsung and Korean technology. I know that the majority of the big companies like Samsung have their factories in China but the Samsung ideas a technology are there.

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                                    • ash18
                                    • g3s
                                    • 14 Jan 2016

                                    Red is generally used to indicate power output which is depicted to go up whereas green indicates battery utilisation which is touted to go down and hence the arrows.

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                                      • AnonD-370043
                                      • au}
                                      • 14 Jan 2016

                                      hitardo, 14 Jan 2016After the "chipgate" situation on Apple's iPhone 6s, I am a... moreyes i agree with u its better for Qualcomm to use TSMC or Intel Cpus not samsung... all people know that samsung product have very low Quality..TSMC 16 Nm Was better than Samsung 14 Nm .Lol

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                                        • lol
                                        • pI}
                                        • 14 Jan 2016

                                        hitardo, 14 Jan 2016After the "chipgate" situation on Apple's iPhone 6s, I am a... moreApple probably used 14nm LPE, 14nm LPP is a lot better.