Qualcomm has decided to use Samsungs chip-making plants instead of its long time partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., for its latest chip, the Snapdragon 820.
From a business standpoint, this makes sense, since Qualcomm lost some business when Samsung decided to use its own Exynos chip instead of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chip, which uses 20-nm transistors compared to the 14-nm ones that Samsung is able to create at its own plants.
Qualcomm is hoping that by using Samsungs plants, Samsung will keep them in mind for their next flagship, since the Qualcomm chips have more integrated part than the ones manufactured by Samsung, with Samsung only having the benefit of the smaller transistors.
Whether or not this deal will help propel Qualcomm forward during the upcoming years is yet to be seen, but for now it can only mean good things for us, the consumers. Smaller chips and more integrated parts mean faster, more efficient chips that are going to make future smartphones even better than they are now, which is getting harder and harder to do every year.
Source: re/code