Samsung is presently working on an unannounced chip meant to be advertised as the Exynos 9820, according to a LinkedIn profile of Jae youl Kim, one of the company’s senior engineers who was also involved in the development of the Exynos 9810, the silicon powering the international variants of the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus. Mr. Jae mentioned the name of the upcoming chip on the list of his major accomplishments and while he likely wasn’t authorized to publicly disclose its name, the updated profile has recently been spotted by known industry insider known by his Twitter handle @IceUniverse. The Exynos 9820 has been in active development since at least January, as per the same source.
The next-generation silicon from Samsung’s foundry business is likely to be manufactured using the 7nm process node technology supported by extreme ultraviolet lithography, as per the firm’s previously disclosed product roadmaps. The module is likely to be the one powering the international versions of the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus, as well as the Galaxy Note 10, much like the Exynos 9810 is being used for Samsung’s newly released Galaxy S9 series and is widely expected to fuel the upcoming Galaxy Note 9. The official announcement of the product isn’t expected to arrive before late 2018, with the Exynos 9810 being technically confirmed last November but only being formally unveiled two months later.
As Qualcomm is understood to have moved away from Samsung’s foundry unit for the Snapdragon 855 project, the Exynos 9820 is likely to be the only mobile chip manufactured using the South Korean conglomerate’s latest process node technologies that will be commercialized in 2019. The start of the silicon’s development also corresponds with Samsung’s 2017 chip roadmap given how the Seoul-based company started actively working on the Exynos 9810 in February of last year, according to previous leaks. The Exynos 9820 is likely to feature a 5G-enabled modem, with the Galaxy S10 lineup already being widely expected to debut as Samsung’s first smartphone family compatible with the next generation of wireless networks. A Mali GPU should also be part of the package, though the exact specifics of the chip remain unclear and presumably haven’t yet been finalized by Samsung.