A new report today claims that Qualcomm is going to use Samsung’s chip-making facilities for the Snapdragon 820. Traditionally it has gone with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. as well as other foundries but it might change that this time around due to Samsung’s superior chip making process.
Samsung has already started making processors on its 14-nanometer process while TSMC is still cranking out chips on the 20-nm process. Without going into too many details, the smaller the process the less costly production turns out to be, and chips tend to deliver improved performance.
The Snapdragon 820 won’t be appearing in consumer devices until next year, it’s designed for 2016 flagship devices after all, and Recode’s sources suggest that the company hopes the switch to Samsung foundries might help it win back business for the next Galaxy S flagship.
This time around Samsung went with its own Exynos processor instead of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, which manufacturers like HTC and Sony are using for their high-end devices.
Samsung’s foundries already manufacture chips for many other companies, including Apple, and if Qualcomm joins that list as well it will only mean more revenue for the company’s chip making business.
Obviously this would be bad news for TSMC which previously handled the bulk of Qualcomm’s manufacturing, it would lose out on that lucrative contract.
So far no one from Qualcomm or Samsung has officially commented on this report.
Filed in . Read more about Qualcomm, Samsung and Snapdragon 820.