Tag: Exynos 2500

Bryan Ma, Vice President of Client Device Research for IDC Asia Pacific, pointed out that Samsung will adopt its 2nm GAA process design for its flagship mobile platform Exynos 2600, which will be commercially available next year, making it the world's first processor manufactured using this process. It is expected to be used in the new flagship Galaxy S26 series. Samsung originally planned to use the Exynos 2500 processor in its flagship Galaxy S25 series, launched earlier this year, but due to yield and performance issues, the Galaxy S25 series ultimately adopted the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. Although the Exynos 2500 processor was subsequently successfully used in Samsung's smaller foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Flip7, launched in the second half of the year, the larger foldable phone, the Galaxy Z Fold7, which emphasizes a slim and lightweight design, still uses Qualcomm processors throughout, meaning that the overall yield, performance, and even heat issues of the Exynos 2500 processor have not been improved. The reason for this is that, to ensure overall operational stability and heat dissipation, the Exynos 2500 added an Arm A725 CPU design to its architecture. However, compared to other competing designs, it lacked the high-performance X925 CPU core and had a slightly conservative clock speed setting. Therefore, its overall performance was even surpassed by Xiaomi's later-released Xuanjie 01, which was also built on a 3nm process. Samsung Q&A: "Exynos 2600 will..."

Following Samsung's confirmation of its Galaxy Unpacked 2025 event in New York on July 9th, where it is expected to unveil the new foldable screen phones Galaxy Z Fold7 and Galaxy Z Flip7, Samsung Semiconductor has officially released details of the Exynos 2500 processor, which has been the subject of much speculation. It may be used in phones sold in specific markets. Originally, the Exynos 2500 was expected to be used in the flagship Galaxy S25 series unveiled earlier this year, but subsequent considerations have changed. Samsung announced a continued partnership with Qualcomm, adopting the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor across the board. With the upcoming announcement of the new foldable screen phones Galaxy Z Fold7 and Galaxy Z Flip7, the Exynos 2500's specific details have been officially revealed, indicating its use in the new devices. The Exynos 2500 is a flagship-level processor using Samsung's second-generation 3nm GAA process, continuing its collaboration with AMD on RDNA display architecture technology. It also features enhanced AI capabilities, image processing, and connectivity on the device side, while boasting a higher level of integration and energy efficiency. The CPU uses a 1+7+2 10-core architecture, including one main Arm Cortex-X925 CPU core, two large Cortex-A725 CPU cores, and seven small Cortex-A520 CPU cores. This "large, medium, and small" core switching maintains a balance between performance, power consumption, and heat dissipation, but the maximum clock speed is relatively conservative, reaching only 3.3GHz. Graphics are handled by Xclipse...

According to sources obtained by DigiTimes, senior executives from Google's US headquarters recently visited TSMC in Taiwan, raising the possibility of TSMC manufacturing the Tensor Processors for the Pixel series phones. The report also indicates that Google and TSMC have discussed a collaboration timeline of at least 3 to 5 years. Previously, the Tensor Processors used in Google's Pixel phones were manufactured by Samsung. However, Samsung's process has been criticized for issues such as overheating and poor performance, leading many consumers to hope that Google would switch to TSMC to improve Tensor Processor performance. DigiTimes' current information suggests that the Tensor G5 processor in the new Pixel 10 series, expected to launch as early as this fall, will be manufactured using TSMC's process technology. However, such news may be detrimental to Samsung, especially as more and more processor foundry business is gradually shifting to TSMC, while Samsung's own advanced process technology has always had yield issues. For example, the Exynos 2500 processor, originally intended for the Galaxy S25 series, was subsequently replaced by Qualcomm processors due to yield problems. However, the Exynos 2500 processor may still be used in the Galaxy Z Fold7 and Galaxy Z Flip7, which are expected to be announced in July.

Samsung recently released its financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024, as well as its full-year financial performance. The company's sales revenue for the quarter reached 75.8 trillion won, and its revenue for the full year reached 300.9 trillion won, with revenue for the full year reaching 32.7 trillion won. Samsung anticipates a more conservative sales strategy for its mobile phone products this year, focusing on enhancing the size and durability of its foldable screen phones, while also expanding its product lineup to attract a wider consumer base. This aligns with recent market rumors that Samsung's next foldable screen phone will feature a larger screen and improved durability to address the past perception of foldable screen phones as not being durable. Samsung also expects to expand its foldable screen phone lineup, offering consumers more choices across different price ranges. This suggests that Samsung may launch a foldable screen phone called the Galaxy Z Flip FE, as rumored, at a more affordable price to attract the market and compete with foldable screen phones from Chinese brands. Furthermore, Samsung System LSI revealed that it will launch a new mobile processor, the Exynos 2500, this year, with an expected official launch in the second half of the year. It may be used in a new foldable screen phone, possibly the Galaxy Z Flip FE, while high-end models will continue to rely on Qualcomm. Previously, there were reports that Samsung and MediaTek were in talks regarding processor cooperation, but due to disagreements on price and MediaTek's need to invest more R&D resources, the cooperation may be delayed until a flagship phone expected to launch in 2026. As for the market strategy for the Galaxy A series mid-range models, the focus will be on design, screen size, and battery specifications, but there are no plans to win in this segment through price wars. Instead, the company expects to attract consumers by incorporating flagship features, security, and durability. However, Samsung's own manufacturing processes are still unable to achieve breakthroughs in yield, forcing high-end models to use Qualcomm processors manufactured by TSMC's advanced processes. Furthermore, Samsung's strategy in the market for foldable screen phones and flagship phones is gradually facing competition from Chinese brands. If Samsung adopts a more conservative sales strategy for its mobile phone products this year, it may face greater pressure in the upcoming market competition.

When Samsung announced its Q2 FY2024 financial results earlier, it also announced for the first time that its flagship smartphones to be launched in 2025 will use its own Exynos 2500 processor, signifying the relaunch of flagship-level processor products. In the Q2 financial report, Samsung's profit reached 74.07 trillion won, and its operating profit reached 10.44 trillion won. The Semiconductor Business and Device Solutions (DS) segment achieved a profit of 28.56 trillion won and an operating profit of 6.45 trillion won, primarily due to a surge in demand for HBM high-bandwidth memory, DRAM dynamic memory, and server-grade SSDs. Furthermore, Samsung confirmed that it will use the Exynos 2500 processor in its flagship smartphones expected to launch in 2025, and will also focus on providing 200-megapixel image sensors. Its semiconductor manufacturing process will also advance to mass production of 2nm GAA process technology in 2025 to meet the demands of supercomputing and artificial intelligence technology development. The Display Business (SDC) generated a profit of 7.65 trillion won and revenue of 1.01 trillion won, while the Mobile Communications Business (MX) generated a profit of 27.38 trillion won and revenue of 2.23 trillion won.

Previously, there were rumors that Samsung intended to include MediaTek processors in its Galaxy S series flagship phones, but this plan was ultimately abandoned due to MediaTek's inability to meet its supply demands. However, recent reports suggest that Samsung is facing low yield rates for its Exynos 2500 processors built on the new 3nm process, and may include MediaTek processors in the Galaxy S25 series expected to launch next year. Reports indicate that Samsung's current yield rate for the Exynos 2500 processors produced using the new 3nm process is only 40%, not yet reaching the 60% required for mass production. Samsung plans to improve this by August of this year. However, if Samsung is still unable to improve the yield rate of the Exynos 2500 processor, and considering the potentially higher cost of Qualcomm's next processor (note) and the estimated global shipment volume of the Galaxy S25 series, Samsung may consider using MediaTek processors as a backup plan. Note: Current market rumors suggest that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, launched last year, was priced between $190 and $200, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, with its new custom architecture, could see a price increase to $260. This implies that if the Exynos 2500's yield rate cannot be improved, Samsung's flagship Galaxy S25 series, expected to launch early next year, may be the first to incorporate MediaTek processors, potentially even offering Qualcomm, MediaTek, and its own processor options in different markets. Previously, Samsung had already incorporated MediaTek processors into its mobile phones, primarily in entry-level and mid-range models. If the Galaxy S25 series next year does indeed include a MediaTek processor option, MediaTek is expected to see a significant increase in revenue from Samsung's flagship phone shipments.

Business Korea reports that Samsung's 3nm process technology still faces yield issues and power consumption and heat problems compared to TSMC's 3nm process. This could lead to production difficulties for Samsung's rumored Exynos 2500 processor, potentially causing the Galaxy S25 series, expected to launch in 2025, to still use Qualcomm processors in most markets. Sources indicate that due to Samsung's continued inability to resolve power consumption and heat issues with its 3nm process, Google's self-made processors, previously manufactured in partnership with Samsung, are rumored to be switched to TSMC. During Computex 2024, AMD CEO Lisa Su emphasized maintaining a stable partnership with TSMC, dispelling rumors that AMD's new processors would be manufactured by Samsung. TSMC's continued involvement in Intel's new "Luna Lake" laptop processor production, along with its long-standing collaborations with NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and MediaTek in advanced process manufacturing, has contributed to TSMC's recent stock price surge. Meanwhile, even though the price of 3nm process technology is 25% higher than that of 5nm process technology, and there may be further increases, the continued increase in demand for high-performance computing in fields such as artificial intelligence has led many processor manufacturers to maintain close cooperation with TSMC. Samsung is still continuously adjusting its 3nm process technology and also plans to bring 2nm process technology into mass production by 2025. This will utilize a rear-mounted power supply design to prevent digital signals from being interfered with by power supply, thereby improving processor efficiency by 10%-12%. TSMC also plans to begin mass production of its 2nm process in 2025, expecting to improve performance by 10-15% at the same power consumption compared to the current 3nm process, and reduce power consumption by 25-30% at the same performance. The 2nm process technology uses a nanosheet transistor design, replacing the FinFET design used for many years, and can also be combined with chiplet design solutions to meet the computing needs of mobile devices and high-performance computing processors.

In certain countries and regions, such as Thailand, the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24+ are equipped with Samsung's self-developed Exynos 2400 processor. Although no specific details are provided about this processor, it is basically based on the Arm TSC23 platform and is Samsung's first mobile processor with a 10-core architecture. The Exynos 2400 processor uses one Cortex-X4 CPU as the main core, five Cortex-A720 CPUs as large cores, and four Cortex-A520 CPUs as small cores. It also uses the Xclipse 940 GPU, designed with the RDNA3 display architecture in cooperation with AMD, which supports real-time ray tracing display effects. It is manufactured using Samsung's 4LPP+ process and boasts a 14.7 times improvement in artificial intelligence computing power compared to its predecessor. Other specifications include a single-lens design supporting up to 320 megapixels, with a maximum resolution of 108 megapixels and 30fps video recording in single-lens mode, or 64 megapixels and 3.2 megapixels respectively in dual-lens mode at 30fps. It also supports up to 8K 60fps video recording. The screen supports 4K/WQUXGA @120Hz or QHD+ @144Hz specifications. It supports 5G NR Sub-6GHz download speeds of 9.64 Gbps and upload speeds of 2.55 Gbps, while millimeter wave supports download speeds of 12.1 Gbps and upload speeds of 3.67 Gbps. LTE connectivity supports Cat.24 8CA 3Gbps download speeds and Cat.22 4CA 422Mbps upload speeds. Reports indicate that Samsung has already begun planning the design for its next Exynos 2500 processor, potentially redistributing cores while maintaining five large cores. This could involve increasing the number of Cortex-X cores or adjusting the number of small cores, resulting in different processor performance configurations. However, Samsung may also retain the existing "1+5+4" core configuration, leveraging its 3nm GAA process technology to improve computing performance and power consumption.