Snapdragon 875 SoC based on 5nm chip in Production; TSMC heading the Development

Jun 27,2024
2 min read
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New Reports suggests that TSMC has started working on its 5nm chips, and is expected to produce Snapdragon 875 SoC, Snapdragon X60 5G modem by September. Apart from Qualcomm and Apple, AMD has also purposed awarding TSMC a contract for producing a high-end 5 nm GPU.

TSMC has started producing these 5nm chips in three variants ie. 5 nm, 5 nm+, and enhanced 5 nm. MyDrivers, a Chinese site has reported that Qualcomm's upcoming flagship Soc, the SD 875 as well as the Snapdragon X60 5G modem will both be based on the 5 nm process and will be produced by TSMC in their Nanke 18 plant.

It still has not been confirmed which variant of the 5 nm process Qualcomm has opted for it's SoC. It has been speculated that Qualcomm has placed massive orders for both their SoC as well as the modem chip which ranges anywhere between 6,000 to 10,000 5 nm wafer orders for a single month. Based on these speculations it is highly believed that Qualcomm wants to deliver both the SnapDragon 875 and the SnapDragon X60 modem on time. As it is also expected that X60 5G modem has also made its way into the iPhone 12.

The SnapDragon 875 will have the X60 5G modem integrated on-die, quite unlike the Snapdragon 865. TSMC is expected to deliver the new 5 nm SnapDragon 875 SoC and the X60 5G modems to Qualcomm sometime in September. If these reports tend to be true then Qualcomm will most likely launch their much-awaited SoC in December at the SnapDragon Summit. We can expect to see smartphones powered by the SnapDragon 875 SoC anywhere between the second quarter of 2021.

Aside from Qualcomm, AMD has also said to have proposed TSMC a contract for a high-end 5nm GPU. NVIDIA can also be expected to join this 5 nm bandwagon as they also looking for Ampere successor.

Apart from AMD and NVIDIA, Apple will also use the enhanced 5nm node for its A14 Bionic SoC that will feature the upcoming iPhone 12.