Samsung Announces the Exynos 9825 SoC: First 7nm EUV Silicon Chip
by Andrei Frumusanu on August 6, 2019 9:30 PM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Samsung
- Smartphones
- Exynos
- SoCs
- Exynos 9825
This year’s Galaxy S10 has been in a bit of an odd situation: Although Samsung continued to dual-source its SoCs, using both its own Exynos 9820 SoC as well as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855, the phone found itself in the unusual situation of pitting 8nm silicon against 7nm silicon from TSMC. So although the new Exynos 9820 did fairly well in testing and improved a lot over the Exynos 9810, the chip seemingly still had disadvantages against the competition when it came to power efficiency, likely linked to its process technology disadvantages. On top of the power efficiency disadvantages, the chip also had a notable die area disadvantage versus the Snapdragon, coming in at 127mm² versus the smaller 73mm² competition.
Samsung’s 7nm EUV process node was noted as having started production back in October of last year, although we’re not sure exactly which chip this was referring to, and we had hopes that it would be the chip for the S10 but alas it was not to be.
This time around, Samsung is seemingly bridging the gap with the introduction of the new Exynos 9825 – a 7nm LPP refresh of the Exynos 9820.
Samsung Exynos SoCs Specifications | |||
SoC |
Exynos 9820 |
Exynos 9825 |
|
CPU | 2x M4 @ 2.73 GHz 2x 512KB pL2 2x Cortex A75 @ 2.31 GHz 2x 256KB pL2 4x Cortex A55 @ 1.95 GHz No pL2's Shared complex sL3 @ 4MB |
2x M4 @ 2.73 GHz 2x Cortex A75 @ 2.4 GHz 4x Cortex A55 @ 1.95 GHz |
|
GPU | Mali G76MP12 @ 702 MHz | Mali G76MP12 @ ? MHz | |
Memory Controller |
4x 16-bit CH LPDDR4X @ 2093MHz |
4x 16-bit CH LPDDR4X @ 2093MHz |
|
ISP | Rear: 22MP Front: 22MP Dual: 16MP+16MP |
Rear: 22MP Front: 22MP Dual: 16MP+16MP |
|
Media | 8K30 & 4K150 encode & decode H.265/HEVC, H.264, VP9 |
8K30 & 4K150 encode & decode H.265/HEVC, H.264, VP9 |
|
Integrated Modem | Shannon 5000 Integrated LTE (Category 20/13) DL = 2000 Mbps 8x20MHz CA, 256-QAM UL = 316 Mbps 3x20MHz CA, 256-QAM |
Shannon 5000 Integrated LTE (Category 20/13) DL = 2000 Mbps 8x20MHz CA, 256-QAM UL = 316 Mbps 3x20MHz CA, 256-QAM |
|
Mfc. Process | Samsung 8nm LPP |
Samsung 7nm LPP (EUV) |
The new chip very much looks like a die-shrink/mid-cycle refresh with largely the same IP generation as the 9820, still featuring Samsung’s M4 Cheetah cores as well as a Mali-G76 GPU. Samsung also doesn’t seem to have changed the clock frequencies of the chip very much: The M4 cores are still running at a peak frequency of 2.73GHz and the A55 cores also run at 1.95GHz. We do see a bump in the frequencies of the middle cores that goes up from 2.31GHz to 2.4GHz.
On the GPU side, Samsung has also stuck with the same GPU configuration as with 9820, using a MP12 configuration of the G76. According to the company the 9825's GPU is clocked higher - so it will outperform its predecessor - however the company has yet to disclose specific clockspeeds.
As for the integrated modem, Samsung has retained their Shannon 5000, a Category 20/13 modem. This modem has a peak download rate of 2 Gbps (with 8x carrier aggregration), while uploads top out at 316 Mbps. We had been wondering if Samsung would be able to squeeze in a 5G modem for this SoC, but it looks like it's just a bit too early for that. Instead, 5G can be accomplished by pairing the SoC with Samsung's 5G Exynos Modem 5100.
The new chip is likely to be featured in the new Galaxy Note10 – Samsung will continue to use Snapdragon chips for some markets, and this could be an explanation for the new chip not having that big improvements on the part of the CPU complex as it’s aiming for performance parity with the Snapdragon. We also have to note that Samsung would have to invest the process improvements into improving power efficiency rather than raising performance.
The chip reminds us of the Exynos 5430 from a few years ago which was also a process-shrink to the chip that ended up in the Galaxy S5, representing Samsung’s first 20nm silicon. That chip never ended up in the popular flagship products, but seemingly did serve a purpose as a pipe-cleaner and learning platform for the new process node. The new Exynos 9825 could end up in a similar situation, although being used in the Note10, it won’t nearly have an as long lifespan as we don’t expect it to power the Galaxy S11 next year.
Source: Samsung
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ksec - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
As a consumer you are basically paying for the additional die space for complex AV1 decoding instead of the patents involved in HEVC. And die space hurt SoC's margin.The_Assimilator - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
A whole 90MHz clock speed increase in a single domain... much wow.danielfranklin - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
You might find power usage to be a lot better and to be able to hold clocks a lot better, therefore providing better performance than it would appear on paper.That said, its the first EUV silicon around, they might suck at it initially...
name99 - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
That's a seriously silly comment. It's clear the point of this exercise is to show that EUV works, not to design a new chip.Apple did something similar with the A5. The original was on 45nm, then a die shrink to 32nm which was just to reduce costs and gain 32nm experience, not any attempt to improve the SoC.
(Apple actually followed that up with a THIRD redesign, also 32nm, this time slightly re-arranging things, to optimize for the last remaining client of the A5, namely the Apple TV at that time. But that's irrelevant to what SS is doing here!)
eforfunopen - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
In October 2018, Samsung announced the readiness and its initial production of 7nm process""has started mass production of 7nm process early this year."
That means Q1 2019
s.yu - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
So it's more of a tech demonstration by Samsung LSI, no wonder it doesn't seem to make immediate sense economically.name99 - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
(a) A Tech Demonstration is a few carefully selected chips.This is HVM, don't pretend otherwise.
(b) You have fsckall clue about the economics of this, either on a per-chip basis or longer term.
Again don't pretend otherwise.
It's kinda amazing how many people want to dismiss what's a very real achievement by Samsung as some kind of meaningless stunt, implying that either it's not many chips, that they're too expensive for this to be sustainable, or that there's something wrong with the chip performance.
It's fine to cheer on your team, whether that's Intel or TSMC (or, god help you, GloFo). But if you're not willing to honestly understand and accept what the competition are doing, maybe you should switch to cheering sports or politics --- because you will land up looking like a fool, repeatedly, in the tech context.
0iron - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
Is there any 7nm LPE from Samsung? It seem odd that first 7nm process is in LPP.levizx - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
Not really. LPE means *Early* to market. Both 14LPE and 10LPE was the first offering in the market. While 11LPP, 8LPP, 7LPP was not earlier than comparable TSMC/GF offerings.Gondalf - Wednesday, August 7, 2019 - link
Lets hope EUV run. Samsung could be a good second source to TSMC, this will help the competition lowering the prices of silicon. Looks like confirmed Nvidia will have some production on this process and i have suspect Intel too for its consumer GPUs....and who knows even some consumer Cpus too :).