Samsung Exynos 980 is company’s first 5G-integrated mobile processor

By Xite - September 4, 2019
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Samsung has launched Exynos 980, its first mobile processor with integrated 5G capabilities. It delivers sub-6GHz speed at up to 2.55Gbps. The processor has ‘enhanced’ NPU for on-device AI experie....

At a time when the world is moving towards the next generation of connectivity, Samsung has launched the Exynos 980 -- its first mobile processor with 5G integration. Samsung says that the processor comes with multi-mode capabilities and delivers sub-6GHz speed at up to 2.55Gbps. The company also claims that the processor also has ‘enhanced’ Natural Processing Unit (NPU) that enables on-device AI experiences. The Exynos 980 is expected to begin mass production by the end of this year.

‘With the introduction of our 5G modem last year, Samsung has been driving in the 5G revolution and paved the way towards the next step in mobility. With the 5G-integrated Exynos 980, Samsung is pushing to make 5G more accessible to a wider range of users and continues to lead innovation in the mobile 5G market,’ Ben Hur, vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics, said in a statement.

The Exynos 980 is based on 8-nanometer (nm) FinFET process technology, and is claimed to help reduce power consumption as well as increase the space efficiency within a device. The processor’s modem supports 5G to 2G networks, and E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity (EN-DC), which combines 2CC LTE and 5G connectivity to maximise mobile downlink speed of up to 3.55Gbps. In addition, the processor supports the latest Wi-Fi 6 standard, IEEE 802.11ax, that provides faster speed and greater stability for online gaming and smooth high-resolution video streaming over Wi-Fi networks.

With two high-performance Cortex-A77 CPU cores and six efficient Cortex-A55 cores, the Exynos 980 is claimed to run multiple apps, UX designs and high-resolution graphic games. It is equipped with Mali-G76 GPU for mixed-reality experiences.

Samsung says that the NPU features performances of up to 2.7 times compared to its predecessor and delivers on-device intelligence. It adds that with the NPU on-chip, AI tasks are processed from the device rather than off-loaded to a server, thereby providing better data privacy and security. ‘The NPU adds enhancements to applications such as secure user authentication, content filtering, mixed reality, intelligent camera, and more,’ the company notes. 

When it comes to photography, the Exynos 980 supports resolution for up to 108MP. The image signal processor (ISP) supports up to five individual sensors and is able to process three concurrently for multi-camera experiences. Samsung says that along with the NPU, the camera can detect and understand scenes or objects, and accordingly make adjustments to its settings. The processor’s multi-format codec (MFC) supports encoding and decoding of 4K UHD video at 120 frames per second (fps). HDR10+ support with dynamic mapping is also offered in the processor.

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