When we talk about the technical specifications of a new smartphone, the section dedicated to the processor always occupies a privileged place. Although in its beginnings it was not something relevant, mobile phones have inherited from the PC universe, the user’s concern to know what processor their device takes and how far they can go with it. In this market, there are several players who share the cake and who have names that are recognizable by many and unknown to others, such as Qualcomm, MediaTek, Exynos or Kirin.
The battle of the processors is part of the game with which the different manufacturers show their chest and show off against their competition. In addition, performance tests are common where the processors are very responsible for the final result. In the vast majority of cases, the brain of our mobile has the ARM licensable architecture , used by different companies to create their processors and CPUs based on this core.
What processors do we find in mobiles?
Exynos
Exynos processors are manufactured by a division of Samsung called System LSI Business. It was in 2010 when the Korean company launched the S5PC110 for the first Galaxy S. Only a year later, in 2011, Samsung launched the Galaxy SII, where it was already officially specified that it had an Exynos 4210 SoC . The most powerful processor to date is the Exynos 990, brain of the Galaxy Note 20. Samsung maintains several factories in countries such as China or India, but still maintains factories in South Korea, its native country, as is the one present in the city from Hwaseong.
MediaTek
Mediatek is a Taiwan-based company with a long history in the semiconductor world. It was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park, in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. Although the firm was pigeonholed into the mid-range and entry-level, it currently has high-end processors such as the high-performance Dimensity 1000 that is compatible with 5G.
Kirin
The famous brain of the Huawei terminals is manufactured in the Chinese semiconductor company Hisilicon, a subsidiary of the company. They are also based on ARM designs and have with the Kirin 9000 5nm the most powerful processor to date. Its future is uncertain due to the restrictions of the United States Government, which has limited its production due to Huawei’s inability to acquire components from other companies.
Snapdragon
The famous Snapdragon are owned by the American company Qualcomm, founded in 1985 . These processors are manufactured by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) famous Chinese company based in Taiwan. However, the firm has announced the construction of a factory in the United States, in which it will produce 5nm processors. The most powerful of Qualcomm at the moment is the Snapdragon 865, although the Snapdragon 875 is expected to debut very soon, as the brain of the most powerful phones of 2020.
And the brain of the iPhone?
Although always under the quality standards of Apple itself , the famous A processors that the Phone integrates, use the ARM architecture and are manufactured by the Taiwanese company Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). The last is the brain of the iPhone 12, called A14 Bionic, the most efficient and powerful in the history of the iPhone.
