Samsung launches its first 5G-integrated CPU

Enlarge / Samsung's Exynos 980 brings more device integration into the SoC, increasing battery life and allowing for more powerful auxiliary processors. (credit: Samsung Newsroom)

Today, Samsung announced the launch of its newest mobile processor, the Exynos 980. This system-on-chip, which should enter mass production later this year, includes an integrated 5G modem, NPU (neural processing unit), and Mali G76 GPU.

How much should we care about 5G?

5G itself is probably not going to be a very big deal for most people. Aside from how relatively few and scattered 5G networks are for now, the really big speed increases for 5G happen on 5G FR2, the millimeter-wave band. The problem is, RF at millimeter wavelength has near-zero penetration-signals are easily blocked by walls, panes of glass, or even human bodies.

This makes 5G FR2 a potentially great delivery mechanism for site-to-site networking-such as an external antenna feeding the wired or Wi-Fi network for a large building-but much less so for an individual phone, whose connection would be interrupted by entering a building, a car, or even the user turning around and putting their body in between the phone's antenna and the tower.

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