November 22, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Samsung Electronics’ upcoming flagship phone Galaxy S9 is highly likely to use both Qualcomm’s seven-nanometer and Samsung’s eight-nanometer chips, ET News reported on June 27.

Samsung uses chips from Qualcomm and its own chip-making unit for its flagship S series phones. The current S8 comes with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 and Samsung’s Exynos 8895, both being built on Samsung’s 10-nanometer manufacturing technology, with the Exynos phones selling mostly in the Korean market. 

The report said Samsung is expected to use the eight-nanometer manufacturing technology for the next-generation Exynos chip for the S9 as it is still preparing for the seven-nanometer production.

In the meantime, TSMC, which will make the next Snapdragon chip for Qualcomm, plans to use the seven-nanometer technology that is considered more energy and cost effective than the eight-nanometer technology.

Samsung used to produce Qualcomm chips, including the latest 835, but it lost the supply order early this year to its Taiwanese foundry rival.

Earlier for the 835 chip, Qualcomm signed a chip-making contract with Samsung on condition that the chip is used for half of the S8 phones, the report said.

“Even though its chip-making unit lost orders from Qualcomm, Samsung’s mobile business unit is likely to use the seven-nanometer chip produced by TSMC considering its energy efficiency and performance,” an industry source was quoted as saying in the report.

Apple used Samsung’s 14-nanometer and TSMC’s 16-nanometer chips for the iPhone 6S.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)