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Snapdragon 835 10nm announced

by on16 November 2016


World's first 10nm SoC uses Samsung’s fabs

Qualcomm and Samsung have announced that the latest Snapdragon 835 is using Samsung’s 10nm process technology. One thing is clear the 2017 Snapdragon is now officially the Snapdragon 835.

Both companies have announced the partnership without revealing a lot of details about the Snapdragon 835 itself. This is one of these sories  "we told you so" as Fudzilla revealed back in April that the Snapdragon 2017 will be 10nm. We and most of the world called it Snapdragon 830, but, apparently, the company decided to use the Snapdragon 835 name.

The Snapdragon 835 is in full production and expected to see it in commercial devices in the first half of 2017. The 10nm FinFET, the Snapdragon 835 processor will result in a smaller chip footprint. This gives OEMs more useable space inside future products to support larger batteries or slimmer designs. Going from 14nm FinFET with Snapdragon 820 to 10nm and making a more advanced chip design move is expected to result in significant improvements of battery life.

Keith Kressin, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies told Fudzilla:

We are excited to continue working together with Samsung in developing products that lead the mobile industry. Using the new 10nm process node is expected to allow our premium tier Snapdragon 835 processor to deliver greater power efficiency and increase performance while also allowing us to add a number of new capabilities that can improve the user experience of tomorrow’s mobile devices.” 

Bear in mind that this is the first ever announced mobile 10nm FinFET SoC and we can expect higher performance and lower power compared to Snapdragons 821 and 820.

In October, Samsung announced they are the first in the industry to enter mass production of 10nm FinFET technology. Compared to its 14nm FinFET predecessors, Samsung’s 10nm technology - allowing up to a 30 percent increase in area efficiency with 27 percent higher performance or up to 40 percent lower power consumption.

This can at least give you an idea what to expect from Snapdragon 835, once the company officially announces it. Since Qualcomm’s CEO Steve Mollenkopf is set to do a second day keynote at CES, it gives you the idea that we may learn a bit more about the Snapdragon 835 too. Mobile phone manufactures are already undergoing working on the successors of the Snapdragon 820 phones launched in March 2016 and later and we expect a lot of phone announcements around the Mobile World Congress 2017 in late February 2017.

Jong Shik Yoon, executive vice president and head of foundry business, Samsung:

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to work closely with Qualcomm Technologies in producing the Snapdragon 835 using our 10nm FinFET technology. This collaboration is an important milestone for our foundry business as it signifies confidence in Samsung’s leading chip process technology."

Snapdragon 835 follows the Snapdragon 820/21 processor, which has over 200 designs in development. Just a month ago Keith mentioned that Snapdragon 821 and 820 scored 150 designs, and the number increased by a third in just a few weeks. 

Last modified on 17 November 2016
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