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Samsung introduces its first 3nm chip that will power devices to be unveiled next week

Posted on by darion

The Exynos W1000 is built by Samsung Foundry using a 3nm process node. It has a penta-core processor that includes one Cortex-A78 CPU core and four Cortex-A55 CPU cores. Samsung says the SoC will launch apps 2.7x faster and “switch seamlessly between multiple apps.” The Exynos W1000 will also offer 3.4x faster single-core performance and 3.7x faster multi-core performance. This is compared to the Exynos W930 that powers the Galaxy Watch 6.
Back in May, we reported that the first Samsung device to use a 3nm chip could be the Galaxy Watch 7, and that appears to be the case, as the 3nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 won’t make its way into a Samsung device until next year. One potential downside is that the GPU used in the Exynos W1000, the ARM Mali-G68 MP2, is the same as the one used in the Exynos W930 chip, and it supports displays with resolutions of up to 960 x 540 pixels.
Samsung introduces Exynos W1000 SoC for wearables like Galaxy Watch 7 | Image Source: Samsung - Samsung is introducing its first 3nm chip that will power devices to be unveiled next weekSamsung introduces Exynos W1000 SoC for wearables like Galaxy Watch 7 | Image Source: Samsung - Samsung is introducing its first 3nm chip that will power devices to be unveiled next week

Samsung introduces Exynos W1000 SoC for wearables like Galaxy Watch 7 | Image source: Samsung

The Exynos W1000 SoC supports a 2.5D always-on display (AOD) for smartwatches. This is because the chip has a dedicated low-power display processor that allows the display to be always on, giving users access to 24/7 time, notifications, calls, and other features.

With a 3nm process, the Exynos W1000 processor should help Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra offer improved battery life. Samsung says that “with an efficient, low-power design based on the 3nm process and an upgrade to LPDDR5 memory, the Exynos W1000 lets you enjoy excellent performance for extended smartwatch use.”

Samsung Foundry’s 3nm process node uses Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors, which allow the gate to contact the channel on all four sides, reducing leakage current, increasing drive current, and improving transistor efficiency through improved electrical signals through and between transistors. This is achieved by using vertically stacked horizontal nanoplates. TSMC will not use GAA until it begins producing 2nm ICs next year.