Samsung announces its new flagship system-on-chip, the Exynos 9820 also called the Exynos 9 series 9820.
Samsung announced the new chip in a press release and it's expected to power some variants in the upcoming Galaxy S10 smartphone series.
The 9820 has two fourth-gen custom CPU cores (probably M4) with four Cortex-A55 low-power cores.
The 9820 has two fourth-gen custom CPU cores (probably M4) with four Cortex-A55 low-power cores.
You also get two Cortex-A75 reference cores as the third CPU cluster.
Samsung says the new design is 20% faster at single-threaded tasks and has 40% higher power efficiency.
The tri-cluster design is allegedly 15% faster at multi-threaded tasks.
A new Mali G76MP12 GPU is around 40% faster and 35% more efficient than last year's chip.
The new CPU configuration is rectifying one of the issues of the Exynos 9810:
The new CPU configuration is rectifying one of the issues of the Exynos 9810:
Here, the A55 cores were on a separate cluster block on the SoC, and thus cache coherency to the performance cores had to go through the SCI/interconnect, which undoubtedly impacted efficiency.
On the Exynos 9820, all CPUs, including the Cortex CPUs, are now integrated within the same cluster and the new L3 is a cache hierarchy to all CPUs, undoubtedly not only improving power efficiency but also the performance of the smaller cores now.
Samsung’s chip is not based on 7-nanometer architecture, but 8-nanometer. Samsung has started production on 7nm chips but they may not be quite ready or Samsung might be reserving them for specific models.
Samsung’s chip is not based on 7-nanometer architecture, but 8-nanometer. Samsung has started production on 7nm chips but they may not be quite ready or Samsung might be reserving them for specific models.
The 7nm process could, theoretically, offer superior efficiency to 8nm, but the extent of the discrepancy may be marginal.
The Exynos 9820 also won’t have any kind of native 5G support (similar to the Kirin 980 and Snapdragon 855).
It’s still early doors for the 5G network and most users won’t feel its benefits next year even with a 5G-enabled smartphone.
Note that Samsung is said to be working on a 5G-enabled Galaxy S10, but this would require a different chipset, or an external 5G modem.
Additionally, the Exynos 9820 also supports both UFS 2.1 and UFS 3.0, the latter of which is twice as fast as the former (the Kirin 980 maxes out at UFS 2.1).
The Exynos 9820 includes two interesting functional improvements: 8K resolution video recording at 30FPS and five camera support.
Additionally, the Exynos 9820 also supports both UFS 2.1 and UFS 3.0, the latter of which is twice as fast as the former (the Kirin 980 maxes out at UFS 2.1).
The Exynos 9820 includes two interesting functional improvements: 8K resolution video recording at 30FPS and five camera support.
8K recording is still rare but will become increasingly common in smartphone cameras in the coming years.
The five-camera setup is likely to have an immediate effect, though, seeing as one (or more) of the Galaxy S10s may include this (three rear cameras and two front-facing cameras).
Samsung has already experimented with a five-camera setup on the Galaxy A9 (2018) with four rear cameras and one upfront, though this made use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 660 chip rather than a homegrown Samsung variant.
Samsung says the Exynos 9820 will go into full-scale production by the end of the year. You'll likely see this chip in the international Galaxy S10 in early 2019.
Samsung says the Exynos 9820 will go into full-scale production by the end of the year. You'll likely see this chip in the international Galaxy S10 in early 2019.
