This year, Samsung has become much more than a company that creates excellent mobile displays and mobile RAM, but also a big player in the semiconductor industry when it comes to processors. Or at least, they’re on their way to becoming one. In amongst all the buzz surrounding Samsung’s choice to go with the Exynos 7420 over Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 was the fact that it is produced using a 14nm FinFET process, while the Snapdragon 810 is built using a 20nm process. We’re not semiconductor experts, but what these numbers mean is that the Exynos 7420 is a physically smaller system-on-chip, incorporating the processor, the graphics chip and more into an overall smaller package than the Snapdragon 810’s 20nm design.
This means that the Exynos 7420 draws less power and generates less heat, which seems to be one of the major problems with the Snapdragon 810 so far this year. Samsung wants to become a big player in the semiconductor industry, and considering that they’re one of the only companies that can produce processors using a 14nm process, it looks like they could be taking orders from the likes of AMD, MediaTek and NVIDIA later this year. According to DigiTimes research, MediaTek and NVIDIA could have a “high chance” of having Samsung manufacturer their processors starting later this year and into 2016. Outsourcing production to an established manufacturer like Samsung makes a lot of sense, and there’s even word that Qualcomm will be looking to outsource much of their production to Samsung by 2016 – 2017.
Right now, this is mostly speculation, but Samsung is one of the few major players in the mobile industry that’s mostly self-reliant. They not only design their Super AMOLED displays, but produce them themselves, along with other key parts of devices like the Galaxy S6, now including the beating heart, the Exynos 7420. Others, like Motorola, Sony and HTC have to look elsewhere for parts and assembly, which isn’t as advantageous as keeping it in house. If one thing’s for sure, 2015 is to prove an interesting year for the mobile industry as a whole, right from the parts themselves to who manages to ship the most units.