According to the latest report, Samsung will mostly use Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor in its upcoming Galaxy S23 series. Samsung’s own Exynos platform may be used mainly for mid-range smartphones in the future, rather than flagship models, the sources said.
Samsung has tried to expand its market share by using the Exynos platform manufactured at 5-nanometer and 4-nanometer, but sources say the 4-nanometer version has so far been produced in very low volumes and its performance and thermal issues have not been up to par.
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For this reason, the company’s chip design arm, Samsung System LSI, is planning to use the 5-nanometer node to produce its next-generation Exynos series, possibly named the Exynos 2300, the source added.
However, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 processor is already being manufactured using TSMC’s 4nm node, which means its overall performance will be better compared to the 5nm Exynos 2300. For this reason, Samsung MX was forced to choose the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 as the main processor for the S23 series, the source said.
It is worth mentioning that the Exynos version of the Samsung Galaxy S22 had a notorious Game Optimization Service (GOS) issue, and Samsung was found to deliberately limit the performance of the processor to avoid overheating and other issues.
Another set of sources told TheElec that Samsung is likely to devote few resources to the development of the 4nm node, as it is considered a bridge between 5nm and 3nm. But they added that customer acceptance and demand for 4-nanometer is higher than expected.
Samsung chip boss Kyung Kye-hyun admitted in September that the company lags behind rival TSMC in both the schedule and output of the 5-nanometer and 4-nanometer nodes.
Moreover, Samsung System LSI has recently reorganized some teams, and the development of SoC is in charge of the AP development team and the communication processor development team or the CP development team.
The AP development team develops computing and artificial intelligence chips, while the CP development team develops communication-related IP. The CP team was split from the AP development team because Samsung wanted to improve its expertise in modem-related technologies.
Meanwhile, Samsung Foundry, Samsung’s contract chip production arm, is also expected to undergo some overhauls. The division underwent a business review by Samsung leadership earlier this year, the first since 2017.
It is worth mentioning that in July this year, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that thanks to Qualcomm’s next-generation flagship 5G chip SM8550 (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) using TSMC’s 4nm manufacturing, Qualcomm is likely to become the sole processor supplier of Samsung Galaxy S23 ( S22 shipment ratio is 70%).
