Samsung Confirms Mass Production for Its First 14nm Wearable Processor

Samsung on Tuesday announced that it has started mass production of the Exynos 7 Dual 7270 processor. The new mobile application processor (AP) from Samsung is focused on wearable devices and is built on 14-nanometer (nm) FinFET process technology. A reference platform comprising the Exynos 7270 with NFC (near field communication) and various sensors is currently available for device manufacturers and customers for their development process, says Samsung.

The launch of the Exynos 7270 SoC for wearables comes weeks after the launch of the Exynos 7 Quad 7570 SoC which was aimed specifically at budget smartphones and was also built on 14nm FinFET process technology. It is likely to compete with Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear 1100 SoC, aimed specifically for wearable products. We can expect that Samsung's recently unveiled Gear S3 smartwatch featured the new wearable processor. The new processor from Samsung also features various connectivity options including LTE modem integration.

It is powered by two Cortex-A53 cores and is claimed to deliver 20 percent improvement in power efficiency compared to its predecessor built on 28nm. The new processor is also said to offer extended battery life. The SoC also integrates Cat.4 LTE 2CA modem which means it can connect to a cellular service as a standalone device.

Announcing the new chipset for wearables, Ben K. Hur, Vice President of System LSI Marketing at Samsung Electronics said, "The Exynos 7270 presents a new paradigm for system-on-chips (SoC) dedicated to wearables. Designed on our state-of-the-art process technology, this AP offers great power savings, 4G LTE modem and full connectivity solution integration, as well as innovative packaging technology optimized for wearable devices."