Shifting Strategy
It has been rumored that Qualcomm might go with Samsung for the production of its next high-end smartphone chip, the Snapdragon 820.
According a news report from the US tech news site Re/code on April 21, Qualcomm will turn to Samsung’s foundries for the mass production of the next-generation Snapdragon 820, rather than Qualcomm’s traditional contract chip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).
The Snapdragon 820 is the main item of Qualcomm for 2016. Until now, the company has produced chips through TSMC. However, Qualcomm has made this decision due to the fact that Samsung is making chips using the 14-nm process, which is more advanced in technology than TSMC using a 20-nm process.
Also, the report said that another reason for the decision might be Qualcomm’s measures to use its chips in the Galaxy S6. Previously, Samsung decided to go with its own Exynos 7420 processor for the Galaxy S6 instead of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810. As Qualcomm has lost its biggest customer in the smartphone integration chip set, concerns over performance deterioration are being raised.