Samsung has announced its latest Exynos 990 SoC, soon after the Exynos 980 that was introduced last month. This uses 7nm EUV (extreme ultra violet) lithography processing technology for better power efficiency, same as Exynos 9825 SoC that powers the Galaxy Note10. This has tri-cluster CPU structure that consists of two powerful custom cores, two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores and four power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores. It has dual-core neural processing unit (NPU) and improved digital signal processor (DSP) that can perform over ten-trillion operations (TOPs) per second.
There is Mali-G77 MP11 GPU, which the company says is the first premium GPU based on the new Valhall architecture, promising graphic performance or power efficiency improvement by up to 20% compared to Exynos 9820 with Mali-G76 MP12 GPU. It supports LPDDR5 with data rates of up to 5,500 megabits per second (MB/s) for wider memory bandwidth than its predecessor with LPDDR4x. In addition to 10-bit video and HDR display support, the processor also features a 120Hz refresh-rate display driver. It supports up to six individual sensors with ultra-high resolution up to 108MP and is able to process three sensors concurrently.
The new 5G Exynos Modem 5123 modem is based on 7-nanometer (nm) process technology using extreme ultra-violet (EUV) processing technology. It supports range of network such as 5G’s sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrums to 2G GSM/CDMA, 3G WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, HSPA and 4G LTE.
Highlights of Samsung Exynos 990 SoC
- Based on the 7-nanometer (nm) EUV process technology
- Octa-Core CPU with 2 x custom Exynos M5 CPUs for ultimate processing power, 2 x ARM A76 CPUs for optimal performance and 4x ARM A55 CPUs optimized for efficiency
- ARM Mali-G77MP11 GPU, Valhall architecture
- Integrated Dual-core NPU + DSP >10 TOPs
- UFS 3.0, UFS 2.1, 2750MHz LPDDR5 Memory with up to 5,500MB/s data rate
- Rear Single-camera up to 108MP, Dual-camera 24.8MP+24.8MP
- 8K 30fps or 4K UHD 120fps encoding and decoding with 10-bit HEVC(H.265), H.264, VP9
- Display Up to WQHD+ (3360×1440), 120Hz refresh-rate display driver support
- Combined with Exynos Modem 5123 – 5G NR 7.35Gbps (DL) mmWave / Sub-6GHz 5.1Gbps (DL) 8x CA / 4G 3.0Gbps Cat.24 (DL) / 422Mbps Cat.22 (UL), 1024 QAM
- E-UTRA-NR Dual Connectivity (EN-DC) combines LTE and 5G connectivity to maximize mobile downlink speed
- DRAM encryption engine to protect data safer with faster processing speed, Physically Unclonable Function (PUF) generates a unique key based on the physical properties of each chip, Integrated secure element (iSE) layer stores and handles personal data separately from the OS environment
The Exynos 990 and Exynos Modem 5123 are expected to begin mass production by the end of this year, so we can expect them in Galaxy S11 and the next-gen Galaxy Fold for next year.