In August we posted a report titled "Apple's iPhone 6s Crushes Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 in a New Speed Test," proving Apple's customized ARM processors are meticulously tweaked to get more performance out of seemingly older processors. For the iPhone 7, Apple notes on their website that the "iPhone 7 is supercharged by the most powerful chip ever in a smartphone. It's not just faster than any previous iPhone — it's also more efficient. That's because the A10 Fusion chip uses an all-new architecture that enables faster processing when you need it, and the ability to use even less power when you don't. And with the longest battery life ever in an iPhone, you can work at twice the speed of iPhone 6 and still enjoy more time between charges." Wikipedia describes the A10 design here. While Apple could have gone with a TSMC 10nm processor, their engineering team skipped it for the A10 Fusion chip. The 10nm processor is now likely to debut for the 2017 anniversary iPhone delivery a next-gen version of the Fusion chip. But for the sake of bragging rights, Samsung is going to launch their new 10nm processor in Q1 powering their new Galaxy S8.

After the Note 7's battery crisis, Samsung has been trying to put it behind them and change the subject. Just prior to stopping production of the Note 7 we posted a report titled "Copycat Samsung to Introduce Galaxy S8 in Q1 2017 with Dual Cameras and No Home Button." Today we learn that Samsung will be powering their new S8 with a 10nm processor.

A new Korean tech report published today states that Samsung Electronics is mass-producing world's first 10-nano mobile APs (Application Processor) and has surpassed its competitors in next-generation system semiconductor process.

Samsung Electronics made an announcement yesterday that it has started mass-producing 10-nano logic process. While performance of 1st generation 10-nano process is improved by 27% compared to 1st generation 14-nano process, its electricity consumption is reduced by 40%. Output of chips per wafer is increased by about 30%.

Industries are predicting that Samsung Electronics will mass-produce new Exynos series, which is its own AP, and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 830 series (835) through 10-nano logic process.

Patterning process that is more intricate and draws finer circuits than 14-nano process is needed to mass-produce 10-nano APs. Samsung Electronics utilized current equipment for immersion lithography to apply triple-patterning technology that repeats patterning process three times. By doing so, it was able to overcome limitations and has secured flexibility in design.

Samsung's Galaxy S7 introduced liquid cooling and I'm sure they'll be praying that it'll keep their new faster 10nm processor cool enough to keep it from exploding and extending their battery crisis into 2017. While a negative scenario is highly unlikely to unfold, any crisis arising from the S8 would likely sink their brand for good. You could only imagine the pressure that they're currently under to not screw up again.

In a report posted last week I noted that Samsung was planning to surprise the market with a formal introduction of their Galaxy S8 during January's CES to kick off 2017 with a bang breaking with tradition of introducing new Galaxy smartphones at the Mobile World Congress smartphone show in Barcelona.

Analysts believe that such a move would now give the market the impression that Samsung is panicking and rushing the product to market. Will Samsung throw caution to the wind and ignore the critics with an early S8 smartphone introduction?

While only time will tell, Android OEM's like Huawei, Oppo and other leading Chinese smartphone companies will definitely take advantage of this processor in their marketing campaigns in the hopes of staying ahead of Apple, their top foreign competitor.

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