MediaTek M70 SoC Built on 7nm Process Announced at Computex 2018

Made especially for budgeted smartphones, MediaTek launched the Helio P22 last month. It was the first chip to bring the 12nm manufacturing process to the budget smartphone market, the new SoC has ARM Cortex-A53 processing units, supports dual camera setups as well as artificial intelligence (AI) enhancements through MediaTek NeuroPilot. Now, the company has announced the Helio M70 chip at Computex. The M70 is based on TSMC's 7nm process, has a transfer rate of 5Gbps, and supports 5G NR (New Radio). It is said to come in smartphones sometime in 2019.

In response to the upcoming 5G transition, MediaTek wants to stay ahead of the bunch with its latest M70 chip that supports 5G NR (New Radio), and meets the latest 3GPP Release 15 standard specification. Foreign media Sogi.com reports that MediaTek has already collaborated with Nokia, NTT Docomo, China Mobile, Huawei, and others to bring the chip to the market. The report states that the Helio M70 is expected to ship sometime in 2019, and full specification details will be unveiled later this year. The chip has a transfer rate of an impressive 5Gbps.

Zhou Yujun, senior vice president and chief technology officer of MediaTek, explained to the publication that the company was able to bring 5G chips so fast into the market because it had invested its time in discussion of 5G rollout, and is an active contributor to the global 5G standardisation. The modem is also said to support critical carrier features as well.

At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018, MediaTek took the opportunity to launch the Helio P60 system-on-chip (SoC) as its new processor for mid-range smartphones. Built using new 12nm FinFET technology, the new processor includes a multi-core AI processing unit (mobile APU) and supports NeuroPilot AI technology alongside ARM Cortex-A73 and Cortex-A53 processing units. Smartphones with the Helio P60 SoC are expected to be available commercially beginning the second quarter this year.