MediaTek unveils new 7nm chipset for 5G smartphones

Taipei: Working to ensure that the 5G wave touches low-cost handsets, Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company MediaTek on Wednesday introduced its 7nm 5G system-on-chip (SoC) designed to power the first wave of 5G smartphones at Computex 2019 here.

The integrated 5G chipset, with the MediaTek Helio M70 5G modem built in, includes ARM's Cortex-A77 CPU, Mali-G77 GPU and the company's most advanced AI processing unit (APU) to meet the power and performance demands of 5G.

"Everything about this chip is designed for the first wave of flagship 5G devices. The leading-edge technology in this chipset makes it the most powerful 5G SoC announced to date and puts MediaTek at the forefront of 5G design," MediaTek President Joe Chen said in a statement here.

The multi-mode 5G chipset is for 5G standalone and non-standalone (SA/NSA) sub-6GHz networks.

It supports connectivity from 2G to 4G to bridge existing network access while 5G networks roll out globally.

MediaTek's 5G chipset is integrated with its previously announced Helio M70 5G modem to give device makers a comprehensive solution for ultra-fast 5G in a power-efficient package.

The new SoC would be ready for lead customer samples in the third quarter of 2019 and be in commercial devices by the first quarter of 2020.