Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 865 Plus have been Qualcomm’s flagship SoCs this year and power the majority of flagship Android phones. While Qualcomm designs the Snapdragon line of ICs, the components are actually made by foundries like TSMC and Samsung. Those are the only two independent foundries that produce the most advanced chips using the most up-to-date process nodes.
Samsung foundry will produce all Snapdragon 875 chipsets
Based on the number of transistors that can fit in a square millimeter, the process node will drop this year from 7nm to 5nm for Apple’s A14 Bionic chipset and Huawei’s new Kirin. The more transistors on a chip, the more powerful and energy efficient it will be. The first 5nm Snapdragon chip, the Snapdragon 875, will be widely used starting in the first quarter of 2021. Unlike the Snapdragon 865 and 865+, built by TSMC, Qualcomm has signed an agreement valued at approximately $ 844 million with Samsung to produce all Snapdragon 875 chips.
Leaked photo shows Samsung Foundry’s Snapdragon roadmap
According to SamMobile, Samsung will use its 5nm EUV assembly line to make the Snapdragon 875 series. EUV stands for Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography, which is a tool used to etch patterns on chips that show where the transistors will be placed. With 15 billion transistors inside the A14 Bionic, these markings must be extremely thin, which is where EUV comes in. Samsung was responsible for the 10nm Snapdragon 835 and Snapdragon 845 SoCs, while TSMC built the Snapdragon 855, 855+, 865 and 865+ using its 7nm process node. One report claims that price was the reason Qualcomm turned to Samsung for the 875 series. Samsung can deliver chips with the same quality as those produced by TSMC but at a lower price.
Building a foundry requires long-term planning. Samsung hopes to take TSMC’s number one spot by 2030 among independent foundries. TSMC and Samsung are currently number one and two in that category, respectively. As for next year, a leaked photo shows that Samsung will also produce Snapdragon 875G and 735G using the 5nm EUV process. Other chips seen in the leaked image include Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 series 5G chips and the Snapdragon 690 (listed as SDM6835). The latter will be manufactured using Sammy’s 7nm EUV process.
Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 875 is reportedly now in mass production and equipped with the Snapdragon X60 5G modem. It should feature the Cortex-X1 as a main core with the Cortex-A78 used as the other three performance cores that handle complex tasks. It will also include Quick Charge 5.0 designed to support 100W fast charging. We should start seeing new Snapdragon 875-powered phones on the market during the first quarter of 2021.
