Samsung will make new 5G chips from Qualcomm – World

© Reuters

Qualcomm Inc. announced on Tuesday a new flagship chip for smartphones that will offer enhanced gaming and photo features and will be manufactured by Samsung’s chip manufacturing division (Samsung Electronics Co Ltd).

Dubbed Snapdragon 888, the 5G chip sits at the top of Qualcomm’s cell phone range. Smartphones with a chip should appear in the first quarter of next year.

High-end Android phones from Xiaomi Corp and LG Electronics Inc are expected to use the chip.

This is the first time that Samsung, which fiercely competes with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), will produce Qualcomm’s flagship chip with a new 5nm smartphone chip process. The South Korean company won a contract for 5G chips from Qualcomm earlier this year.

Apple’s new iPhones also use a chip made with 5nm technology, but analysts believe the iPhone chips were made by TSMC.

This year’s chip is focused on improving overall tasks, said Alex Katuzian, Qualcomm’s senior vice president for Mobile, Computing and Infrastructure Projects, quoted by Reuters.

The new chip can process 120 high-resolution photos per second, and the new AI processor will allow the software to select the five best photos and combine them into one final image.

Katuzian announced that orders for the Snapdragon 888 will not be split between Samsung and TSMC, adding that Samsung is best suited for this chip in terms of design needs and timing.

“I think it would be very bad if you had to divide your resources between two different productions for a given chip,” he said. “We work hard with the manufacturers and are very, very sure of what we want to use a few years before the chip comes along.”