Platform Optimized for AI Era
Samsung Electronics Co. announced on January 4 that it has begun to mass produce its newest application processor for mobile devices, the Exynos 9 Series 9810, upgraded with a faster modem speed, more sophisticated image processing and stronger security. Accordingly, Samsung Electronics’ next flagship smartphone Galaxy S9 equipped with the Exynos 9810 is expected to be unveiled as early as next month.
Samsung Electronics said it is an optimized solution for smart devices as it features an industry-leading LTE modem as well as its self-developed 3rd generation custom CPU built on the second-generation 10nm FinFET process. The FinFET is a transistor design that substitutes the flat channel through which electrons flow with a 3-D ridge, or fin. It is called the FinFET because its tall, thin monocrystalline resembles the back fin of a fish.
The Exynos 9810 octa-core processor comes with four high-performance big cores running at up to 2.9 GHz and four little cores which has a higher power efficiency. Optimizing software, each core works efficiently in context. Big cores mainly perform complex computation with support by little cores, while little cores perform simple computation. The Exynos 9810 sports a 3rd generation custom CPU that Samsung has upgraded with wider pipelines and optimized cache memory so its single-core and multi-core performances are improved around two-fold and 40 percent respectively when compared to its predecessor.
Samsung Electronics has also strengthened a neural network-based deep learning function and security of the new chipset. It can recognize people or items in various photos, in other words, it has the ability to search images and categorize them really fast, thanks to its neural network-based deep learning. This processor also has the ability to scan a user’s face in 3D, which essentially enables hybrid face detection. The Samsung Exynos 9810 also comes with a separate security processing unit, which is supposed to safeguard vital data, including fingerprint, iris and facial security information.
In addition, the Exynos 9810 has an LTE Cat. 18 6 CA-supported modem on the inside, in other words, it has support for up to 6x carrier aggregation (CA), and it can achieve maximum download speeds of 1.2Gbp (Cat. 18) and 200Mbps per second uplink. The 1.2Gbps downlink speed enables users to download a 1.5GB movie in HD resolution within 10 seconds.
The Exynos 9810’s modem also supports 4×4 multiple input multiple output (MIMO), which boosts speeds using four transmission and reception antennas, while it utilizes enhanced Licensed-Assisted Access (eLAA) technology, which enables to use unlicensed band frequency, such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Therefore, users can enjoy streaming of high quality virtual reality contents in real time at anytime and anywhere.
The Exynos 9810 has a dedicated image processing and multi-format codec. It supports 4K UHD video recording, 10-bit high efficiency video coding (HEVC) along with VP9, an open and royalty free video coding format developed by Google. With fast, energy efficient smart image processing, the chipset provides real-time out-of-focus photography in high resolution and brighter pictures in low light. So, 1.07 billion colors, a 64 times more than 16.7 million colors of the conventional 8-bit color format, can be expressed.
“The Exynos 9810 will be a key catalyst for innovation in smart platforms such as smartphones, personal computing and automotive for the coming AI era,” said Hur Kook, vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics. The Exynos 9810 has been selected as a CES 2018 Innovation Awards HONOREE in the Embedded Technologies product category and will be displayed at the event, which runs January 9 to 12 (local time) in Las Vegas, USA.
In particular, the industry expects that Samsung Electronics will expand the application scope of the latest chipset to other smart devices and autonomous vehicles as the company strengthened its AI-based image recognition and categorization function.