Semiconductor industry watchers say Samsung Foundry might be gaining momentum and securing more clients thanks to the positive reception of the Galaxy S24 and the Exynos 2400 chip. New reports reconfirm that Google might be one of those clients this year.
Google is developing a new Tensor chip for the upcoming Pixel 9 series, which should be released in the second half of 2024 (via @Tech_Reve). New reports say the so-called Tensor G4 will likely be manufactured by Samsung Foundry on its 4nm process.
The Google Tensor G4 chip will reportedly utilize the same FOWLP (Fan-out Wafer Level Packaging) technology as the Exynos 2400 SoC (via @FNNews).
FOWLP technology offers better thermal and electrical performance than conventional packaging technologies. It also permits a higher number of contacts without increasing the size of the die (via Wikipedia).
The Galaxy S24 is the new poster child of Samsung Foundry
The Galaxy S24 series is selling better than the Galaxy S23 series despite the fact that the 2023 model was powered exclusively by Qualcomm chips. In contrast, the Galaxy S24 and S24+ sport the Exynos 2400 SoC in most markets and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip in a select few.
Although it's not the Exynos 2400 SoC itself that drives Galaxy S24 sales, Samsung's new chip doesn't seem to detract from the flagship's success either. And because the Galaxy S24 is the first Samsung flagship in two years to sport an Exynos SoC, it helps Samsung Foundry's case that it now has what it takes to manufacture a decent high-end mobile chip.
Google's Tensor G4, however, might not have many things in common with the Exynos 2400 SoC. It may be manufactured by Samsung Foundry on the same 4nm FOWLP process, but earlier reports indicate that the Tensor G4 might have a GPU designed by Google and a different CPU core configuration than the Exynos 2400.
The Exynos 2400 SoC has one ARM Cortex-X4 primary CPU core with a frequency of 3.2GHz, two Cortex-A720 cores running at 2.9GHz, three Cortex-A720 cores @ 2.6GHz, and four Cortex-A520 cores running at 1.95GHz. The CPU is paired with an Xclipse 940 GPU based on AMD RDNA architecture.
