It was not too long ago that Samsung's Exynos chips were considered synonymous with thermal throttling. However, thanks to the Exynos 2600's Heat Pass Block (HPB) tech, those incessantly throttling days for Samsung's AP might finally be in the past now. And other chipmakers are now paying attention to this quiet revolution.
Samsung's Heat Pass Block (HPB) tech for Exynos 2600 is garnering attention
Samsung Foundry has done something different with the Exynos 2600 AP. In previous Exynos generations, the DRAM would be located directly on top of the chip. This time around, however, Samsung has packaged a copper-based HPB heat sink and located it directly on top of the AP, while moving the DRAM to the side. Since the heat sink is in direct contact with the AP, the thermal emissions of the processor are efficiently dissipated by the copper construct, leading to a chip that is cooler by a whopping 30 percent on average relative to Samsung's previous-gen chips.
Now, as noted by South Korea's ET News, Samsung is planning to open up its HPB packaging technology to other customers, including Qualcomm and Apple. Do note that Apple moved to TSMC with its A10 chip back in 2016. Similarly, Qualcomm also moved to the Taiwanese chip fabrication giant with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ back in 2022.
Of course, Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is also suffering from its own thermal "conflagration" problems, with the chip recently shown consuming a board power of 19.5W vs. the A19 Pro's 12.1W power consumption for the same benchmark test.
The culprit here is the clocked frequency of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5's six performance cores. While the final CPU core configuration of Samsung's Exynos 2600 chip is yet to emerge, a recent internal benchmark test - leaked by a reputable source - showed that the prime core on the Exynos 2600 was clocked at a frequency that was just 4.6 percent above the performance cores used in the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5!
As such, Samsung's HPB packaging technology for the Exynos 2600 appears to be a logical match for Qualcomm's future APs.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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