MediaTek 5G SoC

2019: Announcement

On May 29, 2019 MediaTek provided as the company claims, the first processor with the built-in 5G modem — MediaTek 5G SoC. It is not about separate a 5G chip, and a full-fledged single-crystal system in which, in addition to a chip for connection of devices to mobile networks, computing cores and the graphic accelerator are set.

During the announcement the producer did not disclose a large amount of characteristics of MediaTek 5G SoC. It is known that the processor is manufactured on 7-nanometer technology process of FinFET which allows the chip to be energy efficient at the small sizes.

The first-ever processor with the built-in 5G modem is provided

Innovation received computing cores with architecture of ARM Cortex-A77, the integrated graphic Mali-G77 GPU block and absolutely new architecture of processing of algorithms of artificial intelligence, including during the work with images. The mobile devices equipped with MediaTek 5G SoC will be able to write and reproduce 4K-video with a frame frequency of 60 fps and also to be completed with cameras with the resolution of matrixes up to 80 megapixels.

MediaTek pays special attention to presence of the Helio M70 modem which is under certain conditions capable to provide data transmission on the cellular networks at a speed up to 4.7 Gbps. It supports standard 5G NR and aggregation of carrier frequencies. However, the modem can work only in sub-6GHz range, and it means that smartphones with this processor will not be able to be connected to all 5G networks. Some operators unroll mmWave networks to which MediaTek 5G SoC will not be compatible at least at the first stage. MediaTek explained lack of support of mmWave with desire to reduce production costs.

SoC MediaTek 5G processors will reach the first clients in the third quarter 2019, and the beginning of sales of smartphones based on such chips is planned for the first months of the 2020th.^[1]

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