Samsung Announces Exynos 1080 - 5nm Premium-Range SoC with A78 Cores

Today Samsung LSI announced the new Exynos 1080 SoC, a successor to last years Exynos 980. This years 1080 is seemingly positioned a little above the 980 in terms of performance as were seeing some quite notable gains in features compared to the 980. Its to be remembered that this is a premium SoC, meaning its not a flagship SoC, but its also not quite a mid-range SoC, fitting itself in-between th

ose two categories, a niche which has become quite popular over the last 1-2 years.

The new SoC is defined by having a new 1+3+4 CPU configuration, as reasonably large GPU, and full 5G connectivity integrated, and is the first publicly announced SoC to be manufactured on Samsungs new 5LPE process node.

        Samsung Exynos SoCs Specifications
	


	
        SoC
        Exynos 980
        Exynos 1080
	
	
        CPU
        2x Cortex-A77 @ 2.2GHz
        + 6x Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz
        1x Cortex-A78 @ 2.8GHz
        + 3x Cortex-A78 @ 2.6GHz
        + 4x Cortex-A55 @ 2.0GHz
	
	
        GPU
        Mali G76MP5
        Mali G78MP10
	
	
        NPU
        Integrated
        NPU + DSP
        5.7TOPS
	
	
        Memory
        Controller
        LPDDR4X
        LPDDR4X / LPDDR5
	
	
        Media
        10bit 4K120 encode  decode
        H.265/HEVC, H.264, VP9
        10bit 4K60 encode  decode
        H.265/HEVC, H.264, VP9
	
	
        Modem
        Shannon Integrated
		
        (LTE Category 16/18)
        DL = 1000 Mbps
        5x20MHz CA, 256-QAM
        UL = 200 Mbps
        2x20MHz CA, 256-QAM
		
        (5G NR Sub-6)
        DL = 2550 Mbps
        UL = 1280 Mbps
        Shannon Integrated
		
        (LTE Category 16/18)
        DL = 1000 Mbps
        5x20MHz CA, 256-QAM
        UL = 200 Mbps
        2x20MHz CA, 256-QAM
		
        (5G NR Sub-6)
        DL = 5100 Mbps
        UL = 1280 Mbps
		
        (5G NR mmWave)
        DL = 3670 Mbps
        UL = 3670 Mbps
	
	
        WiFi
        Integrated 802.11ax (WiFi 6)
        Integrated 802.11ax (WiFi 6)
	
	
        ISP
        Main: 108MP
        Dual: 20MP+20MP
        Main: 200MP
        Dual: 32MP+32MP
	
	
        Mfc.
        Process
        Samsung
        8nm LPP
        Samsung
        5nm LPE

On the CPU side of things, this is the first time weve seen Samsung adopt a 1+3+4 CPU configuration, now adopting the Cortex-A78 architecture on the part of the performance cores. One core is clocked at 2.8GHz while the three others are running at 2.6GHz. Qualcomm had first introduced such a setup and it seems its become quite popular as it gives the benefit of both performance and power efficiency. The four big cores are accompanied by four Cortex-A55 cores at 2.0GHz.

On the GPU side of things, were seeing a quite large jump compared to the Exynos 980 as Samsung is now not only moving onto the new Mali-G78 microarchitecture, but is deploying double the number of cores. Its possible that previous performance of these premium tier SoCs wasnt as well received as there was a large gap in performance compared to their flagship SoC counterparts, so Samsung employing a much larger GPU here is quite welcome, and still leaves room for a much larger configuration for their flagship SoC, which has yet to be announced.

Samsung now also includes a new generation NPU and DSP in the design, and quoted machine-learning inference power of 5.7TOPs which is again quite a sweet-spot for such an SoC.

The new modem now is capable of both 5G NR Sub-6 frequencies as well mmWave, something which was lacking in the Exynos 980. Samsungs decision to deploy mmWave here is interesting given that outside of the US theres very little deployment in terms of network coverage as sub-6GHz is being prioritised. Samsung adding this in in whats supposed to be a more cost-effective SoC means that theyre actually expecting it to be used, which is going to be very interesting.

Multi-media wise, the specifications listed for the SoC show that it actually cut down on the MFC (Multi-Function Codec) decoder and encoder capabilities as its now only capable of 4K60 instead of 4K120 in the last generation maybe a further cost optimisation.

The camera ISP capabilities have been improved, supporting now single camera sensors up to 200MP, and dual-sensor operation up to 32+32MP.

The most exciting thing about the SoC is its transition from an 8LPP DUV process to the new 5LPE EUV process. This is Samsung LSIs and Samsung Foundrys first announced 5nm chip which is going to garner a lot of attention when it comes to comparisons made against competitor SoCs on TSMCs 5nm node. I do expect the Samsung process to be less dense, but well have to wait out and see the actual performance and power differences between the two nodes.

Last year I had noted that the Exynos 980 looked like an extremely well balanced SoC and we did see it employed by third-party vendors such as VIVO, as well as more Samsung Mobile devices. The new Exynos 1080 look to be even stronger and solid in terms reaching a balance between performance and features and still trying to optimise things for cost.

Related Reading:

Samsung Announces Exynos 980 - Mid-Range With Integrated 5G Modem
Samsung Announces Exynos 990: 7nm EUV, M5, G77, LPDDR5 Flagship SoC alongside Exynos 5123 5G Modem
Samsung Announces the Exynos 9825 SoC: First 7nm EUV Silicon Chip
ISCA 2020: Evolution of the Samsung Exynos CPU Microarchitecture
The Samsung Galaxy S20+, S20 Ultra Exynos  Snapdragon Review: Megalomania Devices

Author: Andrei Frumusanu

Date: 2020-11-12

URL: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16244/samsung-announces-exynos-1080-5nm-midrange-with-a78-cores

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