MediaTek and TSMC trialing new 7nm smartphone processor with mad CPU core count

3. AmashAziz (Posts: 1380; Member since: 30 Jun 2014)

None. They aren't publicly available yet. Except the snapdragon 821 listed above. That's inside many flagships such as the LG G6, Oneplus 3T, Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe, and HTC U Ultra.

10. Mreveryphone (Posts: 1263; Member since: 22 Apr 2014)

I should have been more specific... What high-end phone's do mediatek chips go in currently?

15. ibend (Posts: 6610; Member since: 30 Sep 2014)

--- reply to #10 (when will they fix this mess)
no one, since helio X always use weaker GPU (compared to other flagship processors), so it will stay as mid-ranger..
same for helio X30, even if it can beat other flagship processors in geekbench4. it also use outdated GPU, and will be placed in upper-midranger class at best..
AFAIK, the only flagship that use mediatek is Meizu (since Meizu has dispute with qualcomm, and didn't have another choice than using mediatek processor)

22. Mreveryphone (Posts: 1263; Member since: 22 Apr 2014)

Agreed... This response algorithm is trash! Thanks for the insight!

30. Guaire (Posts: 729; Member since: 15 Oct 2014)

So far Helio X line SoCs were always strictly midranger. There is no shame at selling midrange SoCs with midrange GPUs .

At the same price range their GPUs were competitive not weak, sometimes even a bit faster than others.

For example OEMs could have build a phone over X10 with similar cost a Snapdragon 615/617. There is a similar situation between Helio X20/X25 and Snapdragon 650/652.

Seems like first time with X30, Mediatek can compete on high-end class. Manufactured 10nm, supports UFS 2.1 fast storage and LPDDR4x RAM, also PowerVR 7XT Plus GPU is a current generation architechture. It might be a bit weaker than Adreno 540, but for the cost I don't think it can be considered as weak.

BTW Mali-T880 was not outdated.

26. Pabliell (Posts: 75; Member since: 22 Mar 2016)

I wouldn't call them 'high-end', because even the highest tier Helio X25/X27 is a mid-ranger compared to other SoCs. But some of LeEco, Meizu, Elephone and Xiaomi phones have Helio X20 or X25 inside.
This year Helio X30 will become available, but it still won't be a true high-end.

34. Tondern (Posts: 145; Member since: 23 Feb 2015)

None. Having a Mediatek chip automatically disqualifies it as a high-end phone.

21. Nathan_ingx (Posts: 4278; Member since: 07 Mar 2012)

"approach to accomplish its goals for balancing performance and power efficiency..." this has been going on since dual core and now look at where we're at. Doesn't look like it's going to stop.

6. Nebice (Posts: 68; Member since: 05 Jan 2015)

a bunch of mid-highend chinese flagships (UMI / Elephone / ZTE / ...), but we'll see in 2018, guess some phones next year will come with 7nm, 6gb ram, 2k display

12. mr.reckless562 (Posts: 162; Member since: 22 Dec 2016)

now THIS is innovation!!!! suck it Iphone!!!!

way to keep all the other chip manufactures on their toes!!!

32. HomerS (Posts: 418; Member since: 19 Sep 2014)

Not sure if serious or stupid.

9. Nebice (Posts: 68; Member since: 05 Jan 2015)

theorectially below

11. lallolu (Posts: 548; Member since: 18 Sep 2012)

1mm is the goal.

14. ibend (Posts: 6610; Member since: 30 Sep 2014)

1mm is 1,000,000nm..
just saying..

18. AmashAziz (Posts: 1380; Member since: 30 Jun 2014)

1nm, to correct you.

19. AmashAziz (Posts: 1380; Member since: 30 Jun 2014)

No. 18 comment is a reply to no. 11. Phonearena's comment system is messed up!

17. AmashAziz (Posts: 1380; Member since: 30 Jun 2014)

Some sites are saying 1nm will be a dead end, but let's see......

16. cmdacos (Posts: 552; Member since: 01 Nov 2016)

There is an article linked right below this one that clearly states Samsung is focused on delivering 7nm by early 2018 and hopefully in time for the s9 series.

24. Ordinary (Posts: 2450; Member since: 23 Apr 2015)

Well last time they went with TSMC it didnt end up well.

13. ibend (Posts: 6610; Member since: 30 Sep 2014)

if it's failed... make 16-core...
still failed... make 20-core...
and so on..

and maybe one-day they can find their place in low-power data center... since microsoft making new windows server for ARM :D

23. hemedans (Posts: 628; Member since: 01 Jun 2013)

xeon phi use significant less power and offer better perfomance than any arm server cpu. they need miracle to compete with Intel.

25. marorun (Posts: 5029; Member since: 30 Mar 2015)

they should add more core to GPU instead of CPU... just saying..

27. krystian (Posts: 423; Member since: 16 Mar 2016)

I want 2 billion cores at 1mhz each.

Honestly, I just don't see how all these cores help. When you think about programming with multi threads you generally want to create separate threads for different functionality outside of your main program. Managing multiple threads in your main program becomes a hassle. You have to make sure you lock loops, variables or anything else that another thread may change while one is working on it You don't have control over this so you have to put way more effort into it. There is way too much to keep track of so I don't think many people really create multithreaded apps. Most apps are fine with a single thread. There likely isn't a lot of android apps/games that even use multithreads. Most programs are created with ios in mind first. Logic must be maintained for all of a companies apps unless specific features are added to take advantage of an OS. But adding multi threading to one version and not another one would be a hassle especially when adding changes. IOS will always be what dictates how the code logic functions. Unless Apple starts adding tonnes of cores, no app will ever take advantage of it unless it's an android exclusive.