Samsung Electronics has shared that its Foundry Business will begin to mass produce second generation 10LPP (Low Power Plus) System-on-Chip products. Utilizing the refined 10nm FinFET process, a 10 percent performance increase or 15 percent decrease in power use is possible compared to the previous generation of 10nm technology.
SoCs created using the newer 10LPP process will be put into devices ready for launch in early 2018 with higher quantities being made available as the year goes on. "We will be able to better serve our customers through the migration from 10LPE to 10LPP with improved performance and higher initial yield," states Ryan Lee, vice president of Foundry Marketing.
Short term sights are set on getting 10nm products out the door to customers, but the race for smaller manufacturing processes is still very much alive. Samsung is also working on scaling its current process to produce 8LPP. The additional 20 percent reduction in transistor size is said to "offer customers distinct competitive advantages for a wide range of applications".
Over in Hwaseong, Korea, Samsung's third fabrication facility, S3, is working towards even smaller processes. Samsung's 7nm FinFET process using Extreme Ultra Violet will be performed at S3.
Smaller and more power efficient SoCs are likely to find their way into flagship smartphones carrying the Exynos branding. The Exynos 9810 is likely to power the Galaxy S9 and was only revealed via the CES 2018 Innovation Awards. For now, all we know is that the latest Exynos SoC will have a Category 18 LTE modem capable of 1.2 Gbps and will also have an improved GPU cluster.