MediaTek Dimensity 9400 SoC Reportedly Queued for TSMC Second-Gen 3 Nanometer Process

MediaTek revealed its (now current generation) flagship Dimensity 9300 flagship mobile processor last November, but we are already hearing about its successor's foundation. Digital Chat Station published some early insights on their Weibo micro-blog—the tipster appears to have an inside track at MediaTek's system-on-chip R&D department. The imaginatively named "Dimensity 9400" chipset is reportedly earmarked for mass production chez TSMC, with the foundry's second generation 3 Nm process being the favored node—this information aligns with official announcements as well as industry rumors from last autumn. MediaTek's Dimensity 9300 sports a "one-of-a-kind All Big Core design," with no provision for puny efficiency units—built on TSMC's third generation 4 nm process with four ARM Cortex-X4 cores (going up to 3.25 GHz) and four Cortex-A720 cores (maximum 2.0 GHz).

Digital Chat Station reckons that the 9300's All Big Core configuration will carryover to its next generation sibling, albeit with some major upgrades. MediaTek hardware engineers are alleged to have selected ARM's latest and greatest CPU and Mali GPU designs—the Cortex-X5 core could be a prime candidate in the first category. The rumor mill has the next batch of flagship Exynos SoCs utilizing ARM's fifth generation design. Digital Chat Station proposes that more smartphone manufacturers could adopt a top-flight Dimensity 2024 chip, if its performance can match the closest rivals. Industry experts posit both MediaTek and Qualcomm choosing TSMC's N3E process for their upcoming flagship chipsets—this node apparently "offers improved cost-effectiveness and superior yields" when compared to the first generation N3B process (as ordered by Apple for its latest M and B-series SoCs). Dimensity 9400 is expected to take on Snapdragon 8 Gen 4—this could be a tough fight, given that Qualcomm's offering is set to debut with custom Oryon cores.