Samsung unveils industry’s first 5 nm processor for wearable devices

Samsung Electronics Co. has unveiled a new Exynos processor for wearable devices, built with an advanced 5-nanometer extreme ultra-violet (EUV) process node -- the industry’s first using the EUV technology for wearable gadgets.

The Exynos W920 that integrates an LTE modem offers a powerful yet efficient performance required of next-generation wearable devices such as smartwatches, the South Korean tech giant said on Tuesday.

The new processor improves CPU performance by around 20% and offers 10 times better graphics performance than its predecessor, according to Samsung.

The chipset also features a dedicated low-power Cortex-M55 display processor for handling Always-on Display (AoD) tasks.

The AOD function is widely adopted in wearables, especially smartwatches, as it makes it effortless to glance at the time, notifications and missed calls without waking the watch up from the sleep mode.

With the latest features and enhancements, the Exynos W920 comes in the smallest package currently available in the market for wearables with Fan-Out Panel Level Packaging (FO-PLP), Samsung said.

“Wearables like smartwatches are no longer just cool gadgets to have. They’re a growing part of our lifestyle to keep us fit, safe and alert,” said Harry Cho, vice president of Samsung’s System LSI marketing division.

“With the Exynos W920, future wearables will be able to run applications with visually appealing user interfaces and more responsive user experiences while keeping you connected on the go with fast LTE.”

TO DEBUT INSIDE GALAXY WATCH 4

Samsung said the latest Exynos chipset supports a new unified wearable platform the company jointly built with Google LLC.

The Xynos W920 is widely expected to debut on Samsung’s upcoming smartwatch model, the Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic.

Samsung has been strengthening the Exynos chipset lineup with its focus on mobile processors.

Industry sources said in May it will soon unveil a laptop version of its flagship mobile application processor (AP) chip Exynos.

Samsung's mobile Exynos chips currently power its Galaxy series of smartphones and mobile phones made by its rivals such as China’s Vivo Communication Technology Co.

A mobile application processor is a system on a chip (SoC) designed to support applications running in a mobile operating system environment.

In the wearable device segment, Samsung unveiled the Exynos 3250, its first processor for wearables, in 2015.

Write to Shin-Young Park at nyusos@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.