By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief
Samsung Electronics announced two new products, the Exynos 990 mobile processor and Exynos Modem 5123 for 5G and artificial intelligence (AI) applications at its Samsung Tech Day 2019. The premium mobile processor and ultra-fast modem leverage 7-nm EUV process technology to meet the requirements for applications that make intensive use of video and AI, as well as 5G communications.
Thanks to an embedded Arm Mali-G77 GPU, the first premium GPU based on the new Valhall architecture, which improves graphic performance or power efficiency by up to 20%, the Exynos 990 delivers new levels of mobile gaming and other graphics-intensive operations, said Samsung. The mobile processors offer an overall 20% improvement in performance due to a flexible tri-cluster CPU structure, consisting of two custom cores, two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores, and four power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores.
For AI applications, the Exynos 990 also includes a dual-core neural processing unit (NPU), and an improved digital signal processor (DSP) that can perform over ten-trillion operations (TOPs) per second. The NPU enables localized AI in a smartphone or other mobile platforms for greater efficiency and security, said Samsung, which allows data to be processed on-device, rather than going through a network and a server. It also can help improve AI features such as facial recognition and scene detection.
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For mobile connectivity, the 5G Exynos Modem 5123, one of the first 5G modem chips manufactured using a 7-nm EUV process, supports nearly all networks, from 5G’s sub-6 GHz and mmWave spectrums to 2G GSM/CDMA, 3G WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, HSPA and 4G LTE.
The modem delivers fast downlink speed across the board. For example, with up to 8-carrier aggregation (8CA), the modem delivers a maximum downlink speed of up to 5.1-gigabits per second (Gbits/s) in sub-6 GHz) and 7.35 Gbits/s in mmWave, or up to 3.0 Gbits/s in 4G networks by supporting higher-order 1024 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM).
The Exynos 990 complements these modem speeds with a very wide memory bandwidth that supports LPDDR5 data rates of up to 5,500 megabits per second (Mbits/s). Other features include a 120-Hz refresh-rate display driver, and an advanced image signal processor (ISP) that supports up to six individual image sensors with concurrent processing of three, which enables pro-grade photography, with resolution up to 108-megapixels, said Samsung.
The Exynos 990 and Exynos Modem 5123 are expected to begin mass production by the end of 2019.
Earlier this year, Samsung announced its first artificial intelligence (AI) mobile processor with integrated 5G modem, the Exynos 980 , based on an advanced 8-nm FinFET process technology.The new mobile processor’s modem supports 5G to 2G networks, providing gigabit downlink speed in 4G LTE and up to 2.55 Gbps in sub-6 GHz 5G. The modem also supports E-UTRA-NR dual connectivity (EN-DC), which combines 2CC LTE and 5G connectivity to maximize mobile downlink speed of up to 3.55 Gbps. In addition, the processor supports the new Wi-Fi 6 standard (IEEE 802.11ax), providing faster speed and greater stability for online gaming and high-resolution video streaming over Wi-Fi networks. This device also will ship by the end of 2019.
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