Samsung makes 10nm Qualcomm SoC

Snapdragon 835 will use Samsung's 10nm process as Qualcomm joins the race to get 10nm chips on the market.

Qualcomm announced it is in production with its next-generation mobile SoC, the Snapdragon 835, in Samsung's 10nm process. The news came at a briefing where Qualcomm withheld release of other details of the new chip.

The chip becomes the first mobile SoC at 10nm beating rivals such as Apple, which is reportedly using TSMC's 10nm process for a planned iPhone 8 chip, and Mediatek, which announced it could deliver the first 10nm SoC. The news underscores the intense race for profits at the high end of the smartphone market and how that competition is driving semiconductor process technology.

Separately, Qualcomm said it will pay up to $15,000 to anyone who can find security flaws in the Snapdragon, LTE or related mobile chips. The company also released an upgrade of its approach to wireless charging.

The Snapdragon 835 is in production and expected to ship in commercial devices in the first half of 2017. More than 200 designs plan to the current 820/821 versions of the SoC, Qualcomm said.

Qualcomm has extended a decade-long foundry relationship with Samsung. It makes several of existing Snapdragon SoCs in Samsung's 14nm process.

To read the full article, go to EE Times.