Samsung has announced that a their next generation of Exynos 7 Octa-Core processors, manufactured using the 14nm FinFET process have entered mass production.
The processors are the latest version of the Exynos 7, which Samsung previously manufactured using the 20nm process. Compared to the previous generation, the new process will allow for ’20 percent faster speed, 35 percent less power consumption and 30 percent productivity gain’, though no actual clock speeds have been given
The new processor will support the 64-bit ARMv8 instruction set, with eight cores arranged in the ARM big.LITTLE configuration, offering four Cortex A57 cores and four lower-end Cortex A53 cores. The Exynos 7 uses three-dimensional (3D) FinFET technology to overcome, planar limitations allowing them more surface area. Paired with their 3D V-NAND RAM, this puts Samsung at the fore-front of 3D semiconductor manufacturing.
Samsung intends to use the process in the Exynos 7 Octa first, but will expand it into other products, read: other processors, later in the year.
Given the timing, it’s possible that the processor could be used in the Galaxy S6, a hot tip given the supposed issues which Samsung has had with heat displacement on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810. We’ll know more in a little over two weeks when the Samsung Galaxy Event kicks off.
