HiSilicon has announced production of the Kirin 980 processor to begin at the end of this quarter. Volume production using TSMC's cutting-edge 7nm process is expected to begin 2Q 2018. In addition to HiSilicon, TSMC will also be supplying companies such as Qualcomm, Xilinx and Apple.

The Kirin 980 processor is expected to be used in the upcoming Huawei Mate 20 cell phone scheduled for introduction in the fourth quarter of 2018. Technical details for the Kirin 980 are sketchy so far, but it is rumored to be using Cortex-A75 processor cores with support for Bluetooth 5.

Samsung has also completed development work on its own 7nm process which it will be using to produce the latest Exynos 9820 processor and possibly the Snapdragon 855 processor. By the end of the year we can expect many of the latest smartphones and mobile devices to be equipped with new generation SoCs offering significantly more processing power with lower energy requirements and a smaller footprint. Samsung may also choose TSMC's 7 nm technology to produce its Snapdragon 855. TSMC will also be supplying Apple’s A12 and A13 processors used in iPhones and iPads as well as the coprocessors used in the latest Macs.