Samsung Exynos Octa 7 enters mass production

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. recently announced that it started mass producing the Exynos Octa 7 using the 14-nm FinFET technology. The chip will be the industry's first 14nm FinFET mobile application processor, and Samsung claims that its manufacturing technology allows it to build mobile chips that offer more processing power while draining less energy from the battery.

The Samsung press release refers to the chip as the Exynos Octa 7, but previous leaks indicate that the piece of silicon could be called the Exynos 7420. Regardless of its final name, the chip is expected to power the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. The South Korean manufacturer says that the 14nm technology allows chips to reach "20 percent faster speed, 35 percent less power consumption and 30 percent productivity gain" compared to chips manufactured by Samsung using the 20nm technology. An example of a mobile SoC built by Samsung using the 20nm process is the Exynos 5433, the chip that powers one version of the Galaxy Note 4.

According to the press release announcing the mass production phase, Samsung has been working on incorporating three-dimensional (3D) FinFET structure on transistors since the early 2000s, while the first prototypes built using the 14nm FinFET process have been announced by the company in late 2012.

The Exynos 7 Octa will be the first chip to be manufactured using Samsung's 14nm FinFET process, but the company announced that the technology will be extended to other chips by the end of 2015.

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