Last month, ARM's latest processor architecture Cortex-A76 was exposed, as reported，its main frequency can reach 3.0GHz, compared with A75 it has 35% performance and 40% energy efficiency improvement. Not surprisingly, it will be the first choice for the next generation of flagship mobile processors. ARM also calls the A76 core "notebook-class", so in addition to mobile phones, we are expected to see it appear on larger devices.
Recently, Samsung and ARM announced the cooperation and stated that they will launch a chip based on the A76 architecture using a 7nm process. It is reported that Samsung's 7nm production line will start in the second half of this year, and the enhanced 7nm with EUV technology will be put into production in the first half of next year. In this respect, Samsung seems to be a little later than TSMC, which stated that the 7nm process using EUV will be trial production in the third quarter of this year, and TSMC also received orders for the Apple A12 processor.
In addition, the previously exposed Qualcomm Snapdragon 1000 processor uses the A76 architecture. Qualcomm also increased the TDP of this processor to 12W, which basically reached the level of Intel's low-voltage processor. ARM believes that the performance of the A76 architecture is sufficient to enter the notebook market, and the Snapdragon 1000 is clearly built for notebooks. Considering the long-term relationship between Qualcomm and Samsung, the Snapdragon 1000 should still be OEM by Samsung.
In addition to the CPU and GPU, Samsung also received ARM's Artisan physical IP license, including a full set of memory compilers, 1.8V/3.3V general-purpose input and output libraries, etc., to accelerate the development process and optimize development results.
At present, Samsung has a very strong power in OELD panels, mobile phone chips, memory and flash memory. Consumer electronics products cover mobile phones, TVs, PCs and other fields. But for a long time, the dominance of computer chips has been in the hands of Intel and AMD. Now, ARM is trying to enter the notebook market, which is a great opportunity for Samsung.
