A leader in the vRAN market, Samsung has been contributing to the earliest massive commercial adoption of 5G virtualized networks across the world. The company has been the only major vendor that has conducted large-scale commercial vRAN deployments with Tier One operators on multiple continents — in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

“While Samsung’s 5G vRAN has successfully proven its performance by delivering results on par with traditional hardware-based equipment in commercial networks, we are moving fast into the next phase of vRAN software development — Samsung’s vRAN 3.0,” said Ji-Yun Seol, Vice President, Head of Product Strategy, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “The software-centric nature of the solution allows us to add these enhanced capabilities — performance optimization and energy efficiency — much faster than traditional RAN hardware. Samsung’s newest features will add tremendous value to operators rapidly shifting to virtualized networks.”

Samsung’s next-level vRAN capabilities include the following:

Performance Optimization

• 200MHz 3 Cell Support
  With a software upgrade, Samsung’s vRAN will be equipped with the ability to provide 3 Cell configuration with 200MHz of bandwidth support using its 64T64R Massive MIMO radios. This is more than triple the radio bandwidth support when compared to its previous generation software, capable of supporting an operator’s entire mid-band 5G spectrum holdings.
• Modem Algorithm Optimization
  Samsung is incorporating a modem algorithm optimization approach to its development roadmap. Unlike a hardware-centric approach, modem algorithm optimization enables operators to receive software tailored to their needs, with only the required features and configurations, allowing for an optimized and efficient use of COTS servers.

Power Savings

• CPU Core Sleep Mode
  Available on Samsung’s vRAN software, this feature reduces power consumption by automatically putting the CPU in “sleep mode” — or turning off unused CPU Cores — during periods of low data traffic. When capacity demand increases again, CPU Cores exit sleep mode.
• Adaptive Core Allocation
  This feature of Samsung’s vRAN software assigns a number of CPU Cores at cell setup proportional to the number of active cells. Unassigned or unused CPU Cores are set to idle mode to reduce power consumption and are activated when capacity demand increases.
• Energy Saving Feature Orchestrator (ESFO)
  ESFO is an orchestration tool that manages multiple energy saving features in one platform, optimizing efficiency with no service interruption. ESFO automatically analyzes hourly traffic patterns and optimizes the operating conditions of each Energy Saving feature, per sector and time zone. The tool constantly updates the multi-level Energy Saving operations of multiple power saving features — such as cell on/off and Tx path on/off — to reflect traffic pattern changes and prior results.

With these enhanced capabilities, Samsung’s vRAN can support smarter management and operation of wide-scale commercial virtualized networks, as more operators seek to meet the next-generation network demands of their customers. Samsung plans to launch its new vRAN capabilities to global operators, beginning its rollout in North America in the first half of 2023.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios and core. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio from virtualized RAN and Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company is currently providing network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users around the world.

This year’s event, attended by more than 800 customers and partners, featured presentations from Samsung’s Memory and System LSI business leaders — including Jung-bae Lee, President and Head of Memory Business; Yong-In Park, President and Head of System LSI Business; and Jaeheon Jeong, Executive Vice President and Head of Device Solutions (DS) Americas Office — on the company’s latest advancements and its vision for the future.

System LSI Business Highlights

In the morning session of this year’s Tech Day, the System LSI Business emphasized its goal of becoming a ‘total solution fabless’ through maximizing the synergy between its unique and wide-range product lineup. As Samsung Electronics’ fabless IC design house, the System LSI Business currently offers around 900 products, which include SoC (System on Chip), image sensor, modem, display driver IC (DDI), power management IC (PMIC) and security solutions.

The System LSI Business not only makes leading individual products, but is also a total solution provider that can merge the various logic technologies into one platform, in order to deliver optimized solutions to customers.

“In an age that requires machines to learn and think as people do, the importance of logic chips, which play the roles of the brain, heart, nervous system and eyes, is growing to unprecedented levels,” said Yong-In Park, President and Head of System LSI Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung will converge and combine its technology embedded in various products like SoC, sensor, DDI and modem, in order to lead the Fourth Industrial Revolution as a total solution provider.”

▲ Yong-In Park, President and Head of System LSI Business, is giving his keynote speech at Samsung Tech Day 2022.

A Vision of Chips With Human-Like Performance

The Fourth Industrial Revolution was a key theme in System LSI’s Tech Day sessions. The System LSI Business’ logic chips are crucial physical foundations of Hyper-Intelligence, Hyper-Connectivity and Hyper-Data, which are the key areas of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Samsung Electronics aims to enhance the performance of these chips to a level at which they can carry out human tasks just as well as people can.

With this vision in mind, the System LSI Business is focusing on improving the performance of its essential IP like NPU (Neural Processing Unit) and modem, as well as innovating CPU (Central Processing Unit) and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) technology by collaborating with global industry leading companies.

The System LSI Business is also continuing its work on ultra-high resolution image sensors so that its chips can capture images as the human eye does, and also has plans for sensors that can play the role of all five of the human senses.

Next-Generation Logic Chips Showcased

Samsung Electronics revealed a number of advanced logic chip technology for the first time at the Tech Day booth, including 5G Exynos Modem 5300, Exynos Auto V920 and QD OLED DDI, which are essential parts of various industries such as mobile, home appliance and automotive.

Chips that were newly released or announced this year including the premium mobile processor Exynos 2200 were also on display, along with the 200MP ISOCELL HP3 — the image sensor with the industry’s smallest 0.56-micrometer (μm)-pixels. Built on the most advanced 4-nanometer (nm) EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography) process and combined with cutting-edge mobile, GPU and NPU technology, the Exynos 2200 provides the finest experience for smartphone users. The ISOCELL HP3, with a 12 percent smaller pixel size than the predecessor’s 0.64μm, can enable an approximately 20 percent reduction in camera module surface area, allowing smartphone manufacturers to keep their premium devices slim.

Samsung showcased its ISOCELL HP3 in action by showing the attendees of Tech Day the picture quality of photographs taken with a 200MP sensor camera, as well as demonstrating the workings of System LSI’s fingerprint security IC for biometric payment cards that combines a fingerprint sensor, Secure Element (SE) and Secure Processor, adding an extra layer of authentication and security in payment cards.

Memory Business Highlights

In a year marking 30 years and 20 years of leadership in DRAM and NAND flash memory respectively, Samsung unveiled its fifth-generation 10nm-class (1b) DRAM as well as eighth- and ninth-generation Vertical NAND (V-NAND), affirming the company’s commitment to continue providing the most powerful combination of memory technologies over the next decade.

Samsung also emphasized how the company will demonstrate greater resilience through collaborative partnerships in the face of new industry challenges.

“One trillion gigabytes is the total amount of memory Samsung has made since its beginning over 40 years ago. About half of that trillion was produced in the last three years alone, indicating just how fast digital transformation is progressing,” said Jung-bae Lee, President and Head of Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. “As advances in memory bandwidth, capacity and power efficiency enable new platforms and these, in turn, stimulate more semiconductor innovations, we will increasingly push for a higher level of integration on the journey toward digital coevolution.”

▲ Jung-bae Lee, President and Head of Memory Business, is giving his keynote speech at Samsung Tech Day 2022.

DRAM Solutions to Advance Data Intelligence

Samsung’s 1b DRAM is currently under development with plans for mass production in 2023. To overcome challenges in DRAM scaling beyond the 10nm range, the company has been developing disruptive solutions in patterning, materials and architecture, with technology like High-K material well underway.

The company then highlighted upcoming DRAM solutions such as 32Gb DDR5 DRAM, 8.5Gbps LPDDR5X DRAM and 36Gbps GDDR7 DRAM that will bring new capabilities to data center, HPC, mobile, gaming and automotive market segments.

Expanding beyond conventional DRAM, Samsung also underscored the importance of tailored DRAM solutions such as HBM-PIM, AXDIMM and CXL that can fuel system-level innovation in better handling the explosive growth of data worldwide.

1,000+ V-NAND Layers by 2030

Since its inception a decade ago, Samsung’s V-NAND technology has progressed through eight generations, bringing 10 times the layer count and 15 times the bit growth. Samsung’s most recent, 512Gb eighth-generation V-NAND features a bit density improvement of 42%, attaining the industry’s highest bit density among 512Gb triple-level cell (TLC) memory products to date. The world’s highest capacity 1Tb TLC V-NAND will be available to customers by the end of the year.

The company also noted that its ninth-generation V-NAND is under development and slated for mass production in 2024. By 2030, Samsung envisions stacking over 1,000 layers to better enable data-intensive technologies of the future.

As AI and big data applications drive the need for faster and higher-capacity memory, Samsung will continue to leapfrog bit density by accelerating the transition to quad-level cell (QLC), while further enhancing power efficiency in support of more sustainable customer operations worldwide.

More Far-Reaching Solutions Amidst Greater Collaboration

Samsung introduced an extensive portfolio of storage solutions spanning data center, enterprise server, mobile, client, consumer and automotive applications. The company highlighted its high-performance, low-power computational storage optimized for AI and how it can contribute to eco-conscious computing. Samsung also presented a new DRAM-less SSD, the PM9C1a, which supports both PCIe 4.0 and 5.0.

Samsung then shared aggressive plans to lead the industry in intelligent mobility solutions. The company discussed its wide-ranging memory offerings designed for every modern automotive function, from in-vehicle infotainment (IVI), autonomous driving (AD) and advanced driver assisted systems (ADAS), clusters and gateways to telematics. Since entering the automotive memory market in 2015, Samsung has been rapidly growing its market presence with the intent of becoming the largest automotive memory provider by 2025.

Reaffirming its overriding goals of enhancing customer value and pursuing a customer-oriented development philosophy, Samsung stressed its intent to further expand its ecosystem partnerships. To stimulate more widespread open innovation, Samsung revealed a key element of its blueprint for greater customer collaboration. The company will open a Samsung Memory Research Center (SMRC) where customers and partners can test and verify Samsung memory and software solutions in various server environments. Beginning with the opening of its first SMRC in Korea in the fourth quarter of this year, Samsung plans to later launch additional hubs in the U.S. and around the world, in collaboration with ecosystem partners like Red Hat and Google Cloud.

Equipped With a Brain That Surpasses Computers: Strengthening Cooperation With for CPU

In this second series installment, Samsung Newsroom sat down with two project leaders at Samsung Electronics to better understand the role of CPU and NPU in mobile devices. A computer’s central processing unit (CPU) is often compared to the human cerebrum, the largest part of your brain that handles many responsibilities. Similarly, the CPU is the most important unit that deals with a computer’s four main functions, which are memory, decoding, operation and control. CPU is the factor that determines the overall performance of a PC. Likewise, a mobile CPU runs all software on an operating system (OS) and controls other hardware peripherals, helping a smartphone perform at its optimal level.

CPU performance is determined by a variety of factors, including the clock speed,¹ IPC² and the number of cores.³ The phones of the past were powered by a single-core CPI with a simple pipeline structure. Consequently, there were limits in handling parallel processing, and the maximum frequency only amounted to a few hundred MHz. However, the CPU in smartphones today has a superscalar⁴ structure, allowing it to execute parallel processing for various commands or instructions. Additionally, it can run at 3 GHz speed, or 3 billion cycles per second, and have eight or more multi-core structures. Mobile CPUs now have a microarchitecture that pushes the performance beyond desktop CPUs.

Exynos’ CPU has evolved from a big core to a big-little and then a big-mid-little structure to keep its size small and power consumption low. Big-little structure is a processing architecture concept that dynamically switches between two types of cores — a big and a little — to maximize performance or maximize power efficiency, depending on the task. For example, the CPU performance needed for texting versus playing a 3D game is different. Therefore, when sending a text, the process uses a smaller, power-efficient core instead of a high-performing core.

▲ Project Leader Wookyeong Jeong has worked in the CPU field for more than 20 years since joining Samsung.

“CPU determines the competitiveness of all systems, including the SoC. It’s an influential area and the top priority when it comes to developing advanced semiconductor technology,” said Wookyeong Jeong, the SoC Design Team 2’s project leader who is in charge of all tasks related to the Exynos’ CPU. Jeong has worked in the CPU field for more than 20 years since joining Samsung.

“Achieving a high performance with a limited power budget is key,” said Jeong. “It is important to operate different types of CPU cores, including big, mid and little in appropriate combinations to achieve maximum efficiency in various situations.” Exynos’ CPU optimizes a combination of activated cores to deliver users the best experience in situations requiring high performance, such as playing a game or using a camera on mobile devices.

▲ CPU Core Structure of Exynos 2200

Based on the IP of semiconductor design company Arm, Samsung Electronics is taking the performance of CPUs up a notch. When Jeong was asked about the specific tasks of the team’s developers, he explained the team’s role and responsibilities.

“We decide the performance goal for the CPU of a product, acquire the CPU IP, predict and review the performance, validate and conduct debugging⁵ before mass production and further steps. We take care of the overall development work to enhance CPU performance,” Jeong explained. “The System LSI Business is responsible for taking the RTL CPU design from Arm to create an optimal semiconductor chip,” Jeong said. “The team is also responsible for designing and creating the CPU peripheral circuit, such as an appropriate memory subsystem, for maximizing CPU performance.”

“With the adoption of Arm CPU, we have a vision of becoming the mobile industry’s best CPU manufacturer by optimizing software not only on a chip level but also on a device level. We aim to become an E2E⁶ total solution provider,” said Jeong when asked about the future development direction of the company. “To achieve this goal, the CPU developers have been working very closely with Arm, device manufacturers, Samsung Foundry and others as one team since the early development stages. In addition, they’re seeking various ways to enhance performance, such as advanced packaging technology that enhances performance further,” Jeong explained.

“With the emergence of AR and the metaverse, appropriately utilizing all processors, such as CPU, GPU and NPU for comprehensive machine learning processing on a SoC level would give us an important, competitive edge. We’re going to focus on increasing our competitiveness by strengthening the CPU’s performance in machine learning processing as well,” Jeong added.

Real, Imaginative Technology: The Advancement of NPU Based on Proprietary Technology Throughout Six Generations

An NPU is a processor optimized for deep learning⁷ algorithm arithmetic. It can process a large amount of data as fast and efficiently as the human neural network. For such reason, it is mainly used for AI arithmetic and computation. While it may seem complicated, it is already commonly used in devices. For example, thanks to NPU, a smartphone’s camera can recognize and focus based on the objects, environment and people in the frame. It can automatically switch on the food filter mode for food photography or even remove unwanted subjects in the picture.

▲ AI Remover function within new smartphone improved as NPU developed.

In the past, when NPU did not exist, GPU mainly performed AI computation. However, the computation efficiency⁸ was low due to the hardware’s structural differences. These days, the NPU is mainly in charge of AI computation, and it can process data more efficiently in mobile devices as well. It’s optimized for parallel data computing so that AI-based applications can run faster on low power.

▲ Project Leader Suknam Kwon, who has been working on the NPU since its second generation, now leads the NPU developers.

Exynos’ NPU development began in 2016. The first SoC equipped with the NPU was Exynos 9820, which was embedded in the Galaxy S10 that was released in 2019. “When the first task force was formed six years ago, we had only about 20 people, but now our team has grown tenfold if we include the members from our overseas research institutes,” said project leader Suknam Kwon. Kwon used to design the hardware of the SoC and has been working on the NPU since its second generation. “The NPU is an area of high interest these days, but back then, it was so unfamiliar and new that we had to learn from videos and university lectures overseas.”

In the past, there were few applications for the NPU, including detecting objects based on images. However, in the era of AI, market demand for high-performing IP requiring a large amount of computation is increasing. This can be used to perform tasks such as improving camera picture quality, voice services and more. In addition, since size and power consumption increase as IP performance is enhanced, determining the most efficient architecture is key.

▲ AI using cloud servers compared to On-device AI

As NPU gets more powerful, it offers improvements in object recognition speed or photo enhancement. The performance of the NPU equipped in the latest Exynos is two times more enhanced compared to previous generation. By independently developing the NPU for six product generations, the SoC Design team’s expertise and know-how in NPU technology is second to none. “With advantages in benchmark such as the ML Per, power efficiency, size, etc., Exynos’ NPU is a highly competitive IP solution,” Kwon said. “Through optimization of architecture for performance and improvements in power efficiency, the NPU adds competitive value for Exynos processor,” he said.

Going forward, the technologies that utilize NPU will continue to evolve. “I think the on-device AI, which performs AI computation in one’s smartphone rather than going through a server, will become more widely used because there is less risk of having sensitive personal information leaked,” Kwon said. “Because of this, mobile NPU performance needs to be even more enhanced. These days, one NPU is used for many computations, but I predict that there will be more demands for operating specialized AI algorithms for each application program. So, developing an NPU that is specialized for each domain will be important as well,” he added.

When asked about autonomous driving, Kwon discussed the role that NPU will play in the industry. “In the near future, the advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) will become a reality,” Kwon said. “It requires hardware that can perform autonomous driving algorithms using a massive amount of data in real time. To accomplish this, a higher-performing NPU is needed, and Samsung is preparing an NPU with powerful capabilities for autonomous driving devices that meet the market’s demands.”

At the end of the interview, Kwon explained the most meaningful moment that occurred during development. “Each year, Exynos comes with a higher-performing NPU that is increasingly enhanced, which is very meaningful,” he said. “It will continue to become a key IP for future markets. I take a lot of pride in the fact that developing NPU has led to the growth of both myself and the company — and even contributes to the country’s overall competitiveness,” he said. “It’s the best field where it makes the things in one’s imagination come true.”

* All images shown are provided for illustrative purposes only and may not be an exact representation of the product or images captured with the product. All images are digitally edited, modified or enhanced.

¹ Clock: Continuously generates electric oscillation of 0 or 1 for computation. It’s expressed in Hz, and a higher clock figure means a faster processing speed.

² IPC (Instructions per Cycle): Instructions processed per clock. It measures the clock needed to process one command or instruction. IPC is the unit that assesses how efficiently a CPU is operating.

³ Core: The key part in the physical processing circuit within the CPU. The more cores there are, the easier it is to perform multiple actions at the same time. Single-core means there’s one core, dual-core means there are two, quad-core means there are four and so on.

⁴ Superscalar: An architecture that combines the advantages of pipeline and parallel processing and enables instructions from multiple pipelines to be processed in parallel. The processing speed is fast because multiple instructions can be executed at the same time without having to go through waiting status first. 

⁵ Debugging: A process of checking whether the designed program is accurate, identifying program errors and fixing them.

⁶ End to End

⁷ Deep Learning: Technology that enables a machine to learn, infer and reason like human beings using data.

⁸ In mobile SoC, efficiency means it uses less power or has faster speeds.

The Exynos 9820 has an integrated neural processing unit (NPU) to deliver deep learning capabilities whilst using less power. With the NPU, Exynos 9820 can perform AI-related functions seven times faster than its predecessor based on TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second).¹

This allows the processor to implement AI anywhere, anytime through its on-device artificial intelligence. With on-device AI, a mobile device can perform artificial intelligent activities with lower latency, better power efficiency, and stronger security than when utilizing the cloud. It enables the mobile device to offer new and improved artificial intelligence features such as personal assistant services, augmented reality and enhanced camera functions.

A desktop-like experience on a mobile device is now reality thanks to next-generation mobile processors that can achieve exceptional computing power. The Exynos 9820 features tri-cluster octa-core CPU architecture consisting of two Samsung custom cores for running heavy computational tasks, two Arm^® Cortex^®-A75 cores for optimal performance, and four Cortex-A55 cores for everyday tasks, thus heightening processing power. Samsung’s fourth-generation custom CPU is implemented with enhanced memory access capability and advanced architecture design, improving the single core performance by up to 20 percent over its predecessor.¹  Furthermore, tri-cluster architecture features an intelligent task scheduler to optimize the balance between performance and efficiency for longer lasting battery life.

The Exynos 9820 integrates an LTE-Advanced Pro modem for lightning-fast mobile broadband speeds. To achieve fast downloads, seamless video streaming, and smooth online gameplay, the modem supports LTE category 20 with 8x carrier aggregation enabling downlink speed of up to 2.0Gbps.²

The modem also enhances stability and speed even further through diverse advanced modem technologies including 4×4 Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO), 256-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), and Enhanced Licensed-Assisted Access (eLAA). Furthermore, the Exynos Modem 5100, Samsung’s 5G cellular modem, can be paired with the Exynos 9820 to support the 5G network.

For an immersive gaming experience on the go, the Exynos 9820 comes with a high-performance Mali-G76 MP12 graphic processing unit (GPU). Featuring wider execution engines – with double the number of lanes than its predecessor – alongside cutting-edge graphics compression techniques and advanced APIs support, the Exynos 9820 provides dramatic uplifts in both performance and efficiency for complex graphics. The Exynos 9820 offers up to 40 percent improvement in performance or 35 percent enhancement in power efficiency.¹

The Exynos 9820 is engineered to capture clear images at any time of the day. With its advanced image signal processor (ISP) for multi-camera solutions, the Exynos 9820 supports diverse cutting-edge photography functions which are further enhanced by AI-capabilities. The Exynos 9820’s ISP has increased the maximum number of sensors it can support from four to five, facilitating flexible multi-camera solutions on a mobile device with diverse functionalities such as optical zoom and bokeh effect. This means that, when a user clicks the shutter button within the camera app, billions of arithmetic operations are performed by the advanced ISP to generate better focus, accurate exposure and white balance, vivid color and less noise, producing amazing photographs.

The Exynos 9820 is also built to transform those special moments into spectacular videos. As recording a video in high-resolution can occupy a large space within a limited storage capacity, a processor must compress the video with a video codec in order to store and transfer it efficiently. The advanced Multi-Format Codec (MFC) in the Exynos 9820 processor can encode and compress 8K video into a smaller file size thanks to its 10-bit HEVC codec, which delivers highly efficient video compression with 10-bit color support. This means users need not worry about running out of storage space – even when recording videos in high resolution. Furthermore, the 10-bit HEVC codec can generate 1,024 different tones for each primary color, which translates into 1.07 billion color combinations.

The advanced display subsystem is built to present high quality multimedia content on an HDR display. The HDR display reproduces lifelike colors with a high level of accuracy. Notably, the Exynos 9820 supports HDR10+, a new open standard for HDR video which employs dynamic tone mapping allowing scenes to be optimized individually. With this powerful display subsystem, the Exynos 9820 can support a 4K UHD display on a mobile device, offering mesmerizing multimedia experiences.

Now these advanced benefits allow people to run daily errands and perform personal tasks using their mobile device alone and they must be accompanied by strong security. The Exynos 9820 features a physically unclonable function (PUF), also known as a digital fingerprint, to manage personal data in perfect isolation, making for more reliable security. PUF generates an unclonable key for data encryption by using the unique physical characteristics of each chip. While the PUF creates a unique digital fingerprint, the security subsystem is a secure key manager that supports other security protocols, such as key generation, storage and derivation.

The Exynos 9820 is built on an advanced FinFET process with a low power design scheme, meaning all of this can be done while consuming less power. The 8nm LPP (Low Power Plus) FinFET process reduces power consumption by up to 10 percent compared to 10nm LPP process.³ The Exynos 9820 also optimizes the power consumptions of the CPU and the GPU through reductions in idle and leakage power and operating voltage.

¹ Tested internally on the Exynos 9820 and the Exynos 9810

² Actual speed may differ by country and carrier.

³ Tested internally on Samsung’s 8nm LPP and 10nm LPP

※ Arm, Cortex and Mali are registered trademarks or trademarks of Arm Limited (or its subsidiaries) in the US and/or elsewhere.

※ All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.

* Devices shown and features simulated on devices are fictitious creations. No simulation of any real products or features is intended.

Built to maximize intelligence on the go, the Exynos 9 Series 9820 is Samsung’s most innovative mobile processor to date. Featuring advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, a powerful custom CPU and more, the processor expands the possibilities of mobile devices and provides the blueprint for future smartphones.

From photography and multimedia experiences to connectivity, the Exynos 9820 takes every mobile feature to the next level. The processor’s superior performance and efficiency also make multitasking and mobile gaming more seamless than ever before.

• An Intelligent Powerhouse: With a specialized Neural Processing Unit (NPU), the Exynos 9820 can process AI-related functions seven times faster than its predecessor.¹
• Superior Performance: The Exynos 9820’s 4^th generation custom CPU and tri-cluster architecture boost the processor’s single core and multi-core performances by up to 15 percent and 25 percent respectively compared to those of the Exynos 9810.¹
• Lightning-fast Connectivity: LTE-Advanced Pro modem offers downlink speed of up to 2.0Gbps with 8x carrier aggregation (CA) and uplink speed of up to 316Mbps for seamless browsing, video streaming and online gameplay.²
• A Game Changer: With wider execution engines, the Exynos 9820’s Mali-G76 MP12 GPU offers up to 40 percent improvement in performance or 35 percent enhancement in power efficiency compared to those of the Exynos 9810.¹
• Photography Reinvented: The Exynos 9820’s advanced image signal processor (ISP) supports flexible multi-camera solutions for high-quality photos.
• Capture Reality in 8K: The Exynos 9820’s multi-format codec enables recording more details than ever by supporting 8K video encoding and decoding at 30fps.
• Rock-solid Security: Physically unclonable function (PUF) provides the ultimate security solution for storing and managing personal data.
• All-day Productivity: The Exynos 9820 delivers round-the-clock mobile productivity by enhancing battery life with an innovative low–power design.

For more information about the Exynos 9820, head over to the webpage here.

¹Tested internally on the Exynos 9820 and the Exynos 9810.

²Actual speed may differ by country and carrier.

It was launched in Beijing, China at Intel’s Worldwide Launch Event of the 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor with 6 cores, which comes with the Samsung Notebook Odyssey Z.

Design

The Samsung Notebook Odyssey Z takes an entirely new approach to gaming. Redesigned with revolutionary thermal management hardware, the in-built Z AeroFlow Cooling System consists of three key components: the Dynamic Spread Vapor Chamber, the Z AeroFlow Cooling Design and the Z Blade Blower. They’re all built to keep the Odyssey Z cool in the heat of battle, whilst remaining lightweight and portable, so you can take those powerful gaming experiences with you, wherever you need to go.

The custom designed Dynamic Spread Vapor Chamber is an intelligently made airflow, which covers both GPU and CPU from edge to edge for optimal heat management, so you can game at full performance with peace of mind. The Vapor Chamber is aided by Z AeroFlow Cooling Design, to efficiently push the cold air to the hottest parts of the device above and below simultaneously, whilst expelling the warm air out from the vents. Two built-in Z Blade Blowers add sophistication to the Odyssey Z’s thermal architecture, ensuring a sweat free gaming session.

Performance

The Samsung Notebook Odyssey Z is here to take your gaming to new levels and deliver the full performance of the built-in hardware. With the GeForce GTX 1060, based on the NVIDIA Pascal architecture and loaded with innovative new gaming technologies, high resolution visuals are always guaranteed.

Also equipped with an 8^th generation Intel Core i7 processor with 6 cores and 12 threads, the Samsung Notebook Odyssey Z delivers an exceptional platform for multi-core tasks like high resolution video editing, 3D rendering and more. The device supports the latest DDR4 memory with a bandwidth of 2,400 MHz, so your games are always operating at lighting quick speed.

Gaming Usability

Engineered for hardcore gaming performance, the Samsung Notebook Odyssey Z comes with a refined keyboard with Crater Keycaps delivering enhanced precision and comfort and new and Touchpad design, which is located to the side for a more desktop like feel. Shortcut keys also capture and record your gameplay, as well as giving you a Silent mode option, so you can comprehensively analyze your skills or focus on work with the fan noise able to reach a lowly 22 decibels.

“With the Notebook Odyssey Z, we set out to create a dynamic, user friendly laptop that would take gaming experiences to new heights, from the vibrant display to powerful processing power output,” said YoungGyoo Choi, Senior Vice President of the PC Business Team, Mobile Communication Business at Samsung Electronics. “The seamless visuals, combined with an industry leading cooling system will help give our players an upper hand in their gaming experience.”

Availability

The device will be available in select countries including Korea and China in April, with US availability in Q3 2018.

Specifications

PROCESSOR	8th Generation Intel® Core i7 Processor
MEMORY	Up to 16GB (DDR4)
STORAGE	Up to 1TB SSD (NVMe PCIe)
GRAPHICS	NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060 Graphics with GDDR5 6 GB Graphic Memory
POWER	54Wh
WEIGHT	2.4kg
COLOR	Titan Silver
DIMENSION	375.6 x 255 x 17.9 mm
PORTS	USB-C x 1, USB 3.0 X 2, USB 2.0 X 1, HDMI X1, HP/Mic, DC-in
DISPLAY	15.6” | Full HD (1920 x 1080)
CAMERA	720p
SPEAKER	1.5w X 2
KEYBOARD	Backlit KBD, Precision Touchpad
ADAPTER	180W Adapter (DC-in)

* All functionality, features, specifications and other product information provided in this document including, but not limited to, the benefits, design, pricing, components, performance, availability, and capabilities of the product are subject to change without notice or obligation.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced the availability of its latest application processor (AP), the Exynos 7 Series 9610. The Exynos 9610, built on Samsung’s 10-nanometer (nm) FinFET process, elevates the multimedia experience in high-end smartphones with premium-level features such as deep learning-based image processing for ultimate picture-taking experiences and stunning slow motion video recording at 480 frames per second (fps).

“The Exynos 7 Series 9610 is our latest mobile processor that delivers on added power and speed,” said Ben Hur, vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics. “But more importantly, it sets a new performance standard for high-end devices with its deep learning vision-image processing solution and slow motion video capabilities that change the way we engage with our mobile devices.”

For more enriched photo-taking and filming experiences, the Exynos 9610 delivers a major boost in multimedia performance. Vision and image processing is now coupled with a neural network engine for more intelligently enhanced face detection, as well as single camera out-focusing and augmented low-light images. The advanced face detection feature enables the camera to recognize faces that are either not facing forward or partially covered with objects like hair or a hat. With smart depth sensing, bokeh or out-focused portraits can be taken with a single camera. Through cleverly merging multiple frames, vision and image processing enhances the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and brightness that can improve pictures taken in low-light environments.

The Exynos 9610 also allows for 480fps slow-motion support in full HD. Even while using a conventional two-stack image sensor, the Exynos 9610 is able to encode slow-motion video, thanks to its image signal processor (ISP) with improved performance by 1.6 times and more-than-doubled mobile industry processor interface (MIPI) speed. In addition, the processor uses a premium multi-format codec (MFC) that allows encoding and decoding up to 4K 120fps.

With its powerful CPU and GPU, the Exynos 9610 provides smooth mobile computing and gaming performances that meet the needs of today’s high-end smartphones .The CPU is comprised of four Cortex-A73 cores running at 2.3 gigahertz (GHz), and four 1.6GHz Cortex-A53 cores to load apps quickly and run multiple tasks simultaneously. The GPU is a second-generation Bifrost-based ARM Mali-G72 that can bring more realistic and immersive graphics on mobile devices.

Always-on sensing applications that require instant feedback, such as gesture recognition or context awareness, are enabled by an embedded Cortex-M4F-based low-power sensor hub, which efficiently manages the sensors in real-time without waking the main processor.

For always connected and seamless mobile broadband connection, the embedded all-network LTE modem supports Cat.12 3CA (carrier aggregation) at 600 megabits per second (Mbps) for downlink and Cat.13 2CA at 150Mbps for uplink. The processor is also packed with wireless communication technologies such as high-throughput 802.11ac 2×2 MIMO Wi-Fi, faster and longer range Bluetooth 5.0, and FM for radio. In addition, for global location positioning coverage, it embeds a 4-mode Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver that includes GPS (Global Positioning System), GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo.

The Exynos 7 Series 9610 is expected to be mass produced in the second half of this year.

For more information about Samsung’s Exynos products, please visit http://www.samsung.com/exynos.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that it has begun mass production of Exynos 7 Quad 7570, the company’s newest mobile application processor (AP) built on 14-nanometer (nm) process technology for the budget smartphone market as well as other IoT devices. Being the first mobile AP in its class designed with the advanced process node, Exynos 7570 is also the first Exynos processor to fully integrate a Cat.4 LTE 2CA modem and connectivity solutions including WiFi, Bluetooth, frequency modulation (FM) and global navigation satellite system (GNSS) in one chip.

“With Exynos 7570, more consumers will be able to experience the performance benefits of the advanced 14nm FinFET process in affordable devices,” said Ben K. Hur, Vice President of System LSI Marketing at Samsung Electronics. “By successfully integrating various connectivity solutions, Samsung is strengthening its competitiveness in the single chip market”

Last year, Samsung was the first in the industry to adopt advanced 14nm FinFET technology for its premium processors and has since expanded the adoption to other segments, bringing premium features to more affordable smart devices. As part of such efforts, Exynos 7570 is the first in its class with 14nm FinFET, making it highly power-efficient while enabling outstanding performance.

Exynos 7570, with four Cortex-A53 cores in 14nm, delivers 70 percent improvements in CPU performance and 30 percent improvement in power efficiency when compared to its predecessor built on 28nm. The new Exynos also offers a fully connected mobile experience by integrating a Cat. 4 LTE 2CA modem and various connectivity solutions, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio and GNSS.

Additionally, with design optimization and feature consolidation for components such as PMICs (power management IC) and RF (radio frequency) functionalities, Exynos 7570 reduces the total chipset size by up to 20 percent, giving manufacturers better ability to craft slimmer smartphones.

By supporting screen resolution up to WXGA, record and playback of videos in Full HD, and improved ISP (image signal processor) for 8Mp/13Mp front and back cameras, Exynos 7570 presents a wide array of benefits for smartphone users.

For more information about Samsung’s Exynos products, please visit www.samsung.com/exynos

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced the newest member of its Exynos 7 Octa processor line-up, the Exynos 7 Octa 7870. Using the company’s most advanced 14-nanometer (nm) FinFET process technology, the Exynos 7 Octa 7870 is designed for next-generation mid-range smartphones and other mobile devices.

“With increased performance and power efficiency, we anticipate widespread adoption of our new Exynos 7 Octa 7870 into mid-tier mobile devices,” said Ben K. Hur, Vice President of System LSI marketing, Samsung Electronics. “Consumers will experience enhanced performance as this is the first time a mobile application processor built on advanced 14nm process is available for these types of smart mobile devices.”

Samsung has been strengthening its leadership in the mobile SoC market by manufacturing the industry’s first 14nm FinFET based application processor, the Exynos 7 Octa 7420, early last year and the Exynos 8 Octa 8890 with top of the line Cat.12/13 LTE modem and custom designed CPU cores last month.

Samsung plans to build up its position further by employing 14nm FinFET process technology for its mid-range processors for the first time in the industry. By using its advanced process technology, which has been reserved for premium Exynos processors, Samsung expects to give mobile manufacturers an ideal mobile SoC option for mid-range smartphones with leading-edge performance and power efficiency, and area scaling benefits. The new Exynos 7 Octa 7870 processor consumes over 30 percent less power than mobile SoCs built with 28nm High-k Metal Gate process technology at the same performance level.

The Exynos 7 Octa 7870 is equipped with eight 1.6GHz Cortex-A53 cores and LTE Cat.6 2CA Modem that supports 300Mbps downlink speed and FDD-TDD joint carrier aggregation for better network flexibility. In terms of multimedia functionalities, the processor supports 1080p 60fps video playback and WUXGA (1920×1200) display resolution. Its image signal processor (ISP) delivers high resolution images – up to 16 megapixels for both rear and front cameras, or 8Mp each in dual camera mode. In addition, it integrates GNSS solution that delivers fast time-to-first-fix (TTFF) feature, which enables a robust mobile experience based on more accurate and rapidly transitioning location based services.

The Exynos 7 Octa 7870 will be in mass production in the first quarter of 2016.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced the newest member of its Exynos family of application processors, the Exynos 8 Octa 8890. This chip is Samsung’s second premium application processor built on 14nm FinFET process technology. Unlike the previous Exynos 7 Octa 7420, the Exynos 8 Octa is an integrated one-chip solution that features the company’s first custom designed CPU based on 64-bit ARMv8 architecture and the latest LTE Rel.12 Cat.12/13 modem. This brings a new level of performance to Samsung’s Exynos processor premium line-up for mobile applications.

“The Exynos 8 Octa is a leading-edge application processor for next-generation mobile devices that incorporates Samsung’s mobile technology leadership in CPU, ISP, and modem as well as process technology,” said Dr. Kyushik Hong, Vice President of System LSI marketing, Samsung Electronics. “With our custom designed CPU cores and the industry’s most advanced LTE modem, consumers using mobile devices with the Exynos 8 Octa will experience a new level of mobile computing.”

The Exynos 8 Octa is Samsung’s first application processor to include the company’s initial premium custom CPU cores based on 64-bit ARMv8 architecture providing over 30 percent improvement in performance and 10 percent in power efficiency compared to the Exynos 7 Octa. This chip also supports enhanced heterogeneous multi-processing for efficient usage of the eight cores, four custom and four ARM® Cortex®-A53, to deliver the highest performance and power efficiency in its class.

The Exynos 8 Octa is Samsung’s first integrated one-chip solution in its premium line-up that combines the application processor and modem. Samsung has delivered one-chip Exynos solutions for mid to high-end smartphones in recent years. The Exynos 8 Octa integrates the most advanced LTE Rel.12 Cat.12/13 modem that enables maximum download speed of up to 600Mbps (Cat.12) and upload speed of up to 150Mbps (Cat.13) with carrier aggregation. With such a high data transfer rate, the Exynos 8 Octa will contribute to delivering an excellent mobile experience, allowing users to enjoy and share high resolution video content on the go with ease. Also the one-chip solution benefits OEMs with a reduced number of parts needed and overall space required for a device, allowing more flexible design options.

For a graphic-intensive user interface, highly immersive 3D gaming and life-like virtual reality experiences, the Exynos 8 Octa employs ARM®’s latest GPU, Mali-T880.

Samsung plans to begin mass production of the Exynos 8 Octa in late 2015.

For more information about Samsung’s Exynos products, please visit www.samsung.com/exynos.