Samsung Electronics unveils total solutions for 5G smartphone

With the Wednesday launch of 5G smartphones in South Korea, a market for 5G chips is also facing an increasingly fierce competition as Samsung introduced a core semi-conductor for its latest smartphone Galaxy S10 5G. Competition is heating up with Samsung and Qualcomm, the two biggest players of the 5G chip market, jockeying for preeminence, and Intel and Huawei adding heat to the competition.

On Thursday, Samsung announced the release of a 5G total modem solution including its first 5G modem Exynos Modem 5100, a radio frequency transceiver Exynos RF 5500, and a supply modulator solution Exynos SM 5800.

Modem chips are designed to convert the voice and data information into signals or turn external signals into voices and data. RF chips modulate signals for radio wave communications, and in this process, SM chips play the role of adjusting voltage to boost efficiency of radio signals transmission.

The Exynos RF 5500 supports a 2G to 5G-NR sub-6GHz spectrum in a single chip, easing the strains on design space. Transmission speed has upgraded as well. The Exynos SM 5800 supports up to 100MHz envelope-tracking bandwidth, enabling more efficient data transmission. The Exynos SM 5800 also boasts a 30-percent power reduction by optimizing the amount of voltage required.

“The new modem solution will provide powerful performance and power efficiency, and it will also support mobile communication standards for different generations for smoother connectivity in any place,” said Kang In-yup, chief of LSI Business Division at Samsung System.


Dong-Jun Heo hungry@donga.com