Samsung had announced during its Q1 2020 earnings call that it will start the mass production of 5nm chipsets by the end of the second quarter. The first chipset to be made using the company's 5nm EUV process was rumored to be the Exynos 992, but that didn't happen as the Galaxy Note 20 is expected to feature the same 7nm Exynos 990 SoC that's used in the Galaxy S20 series. Now, it is being reported that Samsung will make Qualcomm's next-generation flagship and mid-range Snapdragon chipsets in 2021 using its 5nm process.
According to a leaked image, which reportedly comes from an investment bank, Samsung will make the Snapdragon 875G and the Snapdragon 735G chipsets for Qualcomm using its 5nm EUV process. These chips are expected to be 25% smaller than SoCs fabricated using the 7nm process, and they will feature higher transistor density, and up to 20 percent improved power efficiency. Apparently, the Snapdragon X60 5G modem will be made using the same 5nm EUV process, but we are not sure if it will be completely integrated into the Snapdragon 875G.
Snapdragon 875G could be used in the Galaxy S21
Previously leaked information suggests that the Snapdragon 875 will use Kryo 685 CPU cores, Adreno 660 GPU, Adreno 665 VPU (vector processing unit), Adreno 1095 DPU (data processing unit), Spectra 580 ISP, support for quad-channel PoP LPDDR5 RAM, Qualcomm Secure Processing Unit, Wi-Fi ax with 2×2 MIMO, and more. It is rumored to feature Aqstic Audio Technologies WCD9380 and WCD9385 audio codec engines. This chipset could end up in the Galaxy S21 series early next year.
The Snapdragon 865 and the Snapdragon 865+, which were released this year, were made by TSMC using its 7nm process. If the new report about the Snapdragon 875G is true, the South Korean chip giant has finally won orders from Qualcomm for making 5nm mobile chips. Even the rumored Exynos 1000 is expected to be built using the 5nm EUV processor, and it could be the first chipset to feature AMD's Radeon mobile GPU.
