Samsung is definitely doing good as Qualcomm might switch from TSMC to Samsung's foundries to manufacture the upcoming Snapdragon 820 SoC.

The current Snapdragon 810 SoC is built by TSMC, which has also built previous SoCs for Qualcomm, but according to the latest report Qualcomm might switch to Samsung and its 14nm manufacturing process.

In order to add 64-bit capability to its chipsets, Qualcomm had to use standard ARM Cortex cores instead of custom chips, which were not ready, but as even Samsung's own Exynos chipset uses the same Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 cores, and getting better results, Samsung's 14nm manufacturing process seems like a good way to go for Qualcom.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 SoC will feature custom cores with 64-bit ARMv8 instruction set and will probably be included in many flagship smartphones next year. While the custom design might be better than ARM's, Qualcomm will still need a better manufacturing process, something that Samsung can offer.

While neither Samsung or Qualcomm did not confirm the move, this certainly puts TSMC in bad position as Apple is also tapping Samsung for its next generation A9 chipset.



Source: Sammobile.com.