Qualcomm has reportedly started sending samples of the Snapdragon 820 SoC to smartphone OEMs. According to reports, the company’s next flagship SoC will be manufactured using Samsung’s 14nm node manufacturing technology. Qualcomm first teased the chipset at MWC 2015 in Barcelona, where it revealed that the chipset will have custom-designed 64-bit CPU cores, known as Kyro.
If the rumours about Samsung’s involvement are true, it would mean Qualcomm is dropping TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) for manufacturing its chips. This will also make Qualcomm the third chipset maker, after Samsung and Intel, to use the 14nm manufacturing technology. Competitor MediaTek has also said that it plans to manufacture its next chipsets using this process.
Furthermore, the Snapdragon 820 will reportedly be clocked at 3.0GHz and companies like Xiaomi, HTC, Sony and LG will be the first to use it in their smartphones. What remains to be seen is whether the chipset will still suffer from heating issues similar to what has been reported about Qualcomm’s current Snapdragon 810 chipset.
The Snapdragon 820 should be a part of upcoming flagship phones, which will be launched later this year or early next year.