MediaTek’s latest flagship smartphone SoC is based on a 6nm process node. But the likes Qualcomm, Samsung, and Apple, all already use the 5nm architecture and are preparing to move to the 4nm technology this year. The Taiwanese biggie doesn’t want to be lagging and is preparing to jump straight from 6nm to 4nm this year to match its rivals. Perhaps it plans to launch the world’s first 4nm smartphone chip. Its compatriot TSMC will reportedly manufacture the Dimensity 2000 chipsets. Qualcomm is tapping Samsung for the manufacturing of the Snapdragon 898. MediaTek also plans to match its rivals in terms of core specs. Multiple reports on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo suggest that the Dimensity 2000 will use the ARM’s latest V9 architecture as well as the Cortex-X2 Super Core. That’s what we are expecting on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 898 as well. ARM claims that the Cortex-X2 Super Core will bring a 16 percent performance boost over Cortex-X1 found inside the Snapdragon 888 and 888+. The company also promises the newer Cortex-A710 and Cortex-A510 V9 cores to be about 30 percent more power-efficient. So we are in for quite an upgrade in terms of the raw processing power this year, both from Qualcomm as well as MediaTek. Reports suggest that the Snapdragon 898 will use a 1+3+2+2 CPU cluster. The Cortex-X2 Super Core will be supported by three Cortex-A710 cores, two higher-clocked Cortex-A510 cores, and two more Cortex-A510 cores at a lower clock speed. But a recent Geekbench listing suggested otherwise. So we will have to wait for more reports to emerge and confirm that. We also need to wait for confirmation on what CPU core arrangement MediaTek will use on the Dimensity 2000.
MediaTek is already testing the rumored Dimensity 2000
MediaTek is reportedly already testing the first samples of its next-gen flagship smartphone SoC among its hardware partners. We don’t have performance reports from these tests as yet. However, this suggests that we could see the Dimensity 1200 by the end of this year, or at least early next year. To that end, Qualcomm is also seemingly testing the Snapdragon 898 internally. It recently appeared on Geekbench on an unannounced Vivo device. So it could arrive around the same time as well. Time will tell who comes out on top, Qualcomm or MediaTek.
