Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Samsung Begins Mass Production of Its Own 5G Chips (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

Samsung Electronics has started mass-producing its 5G chips, the company said. From a report: Among the company's new chip offerings is the Exynos Modem 5100, which contains a 5G multi-mode chipset; it is the same chipset that is used to power the Galaxy S10 5G, which became available for sale in South Korea as of Wednesday. The model, unveiled in August, is the world's first 5G modem to be compatible with the 3GPP's 5G New Radio (5G-NR) standard. Mass production for its single-chip radio frequency transceiver, the Exynos RF 5500, and supply modulator solution, the Exynos SM 5800, have also started, Samsung said. These technologies also power Samsung's flagship 5G phone. The Exynos RF 5500 has 14 receiver paths for download, 4x4 MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output), and a higher-order 256 QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) scheme for data transfer in 5G networks; and the Eyxnos SM5800 is 30% more power efficient than previous offerings.

26 comments

  1. Who is that man? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Homer Simpson sir!
    Why is he playing with that antenna?

  2. Already on 5G. Thanks marketing. by dimmthewitted · · Score: 2

    My Galaxy S8 already says 5G. Way to go Sprint "re-branding" your cellular service so that the average consumer thinks they are already on 5G.

    That's not shadily deceptive at all, THATS MARKETING! :)

  3. MANNING AMERICA'S GALLOWS AGAIN BITCH TRAITOR! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MAGA INDEED. Rope is coming.

    1. Re:MANNING AMERICA'S GALLOWS AGAIN BITCH TRAITOR! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MAGA INDEED. Rope is coming.

      Agreed. It's HER turn.

  4. Re:Already on 5G. Thanks marketing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    " They see people almost being denied a supreme court seat because they once had a beer while in school."

        https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=13577626&cid=58274188

  5. Better certification system needed. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Frankly, every wireless chipset (not just GSM version xyz) has been one shitty implementation after another. Since we're putting these things in everything from pocket computers to infrastructure, we need to start having stringent chipset testing to ensure they cannot be exploited. I there are few (if any) wireless chipsets that can actually stand up to fuzzing let alone a reverse engineering attack.

    We really need a certification body that actually tests chipsets to ensure that at the very least they won't fault/reboot (indicative of being exploitable) when they are fuzzed. Frankly, I would think to have the highest level of certification from this body that your code would have be formally verified. Considering they are a small isolated system, this isn't a Herculean task.

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    1. Re:Better certification system needed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who certifies the certificationmen?

      A US-based body would be suspected of favoring US companies, and having a European or Asian body would probably be even worse.

      Any suggestions for how such a certification body could be credible?

    2. Re:Better certification system needed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude. The powers that be don't even use such tech to transmit true secret info.

      Go listen to some number stations or something.

      The true power dynamic is between those who have power and the relatively powerless... you're in the latter camp.

      Protip: Knowledge is Power, rulers don't give power to serifs. You're basically deceived about everything if your wisdom comes from gov approved academic institutions. Sorry.

      The truth about 5G is that it gives our goddess higher resolution vision, which should cause you to rejoice -- except that you don't know she's watching us all, and have no intention to begin loving such a shy goddess...

    3. Re:Better certification system needed. by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Informative

      Frankly, every wireless chipset (not just GSM version xyz) has been one shitty implementation after another. Since we're putting these things in everything from pocket computers to infrastructure, we need to start having stringent chipset testing to ensure they cannot be exploited. I there are few (if any) wireless chipsets that can actually stand up to fuzzing let alone a reverse engineering attack.

      We really need a certification body that actually tests chipsets to ensure that at the very least they won't fault/reboot (indicative of being exploitable) when they are fuzzed. Frankly, I would think to have the highest level of certification from this body that your code would have be formally verified. Considering they are a small isolated system, this isn't a Herculean task.

      Actually, it's a fairly difficult problem because you're talking real time systems verification and dozens of threads that can interact with each other, only a tiny combination of which if a packet of type Z arrives and within 1.2 ms a packet of type Y comes in, there's an exploitable window of 50 ms where if you send a packet of type A, the modem drops.

      It's a heavily multitasked system of which there's at least a couple of processors mandatory (a DSP and a control processor) all trying to handle dozens of events that can happen.

      And it's possible - think of a high speed download taking place alongside a call, the signal is fading out and the radio has to do a handoff procedure to get onto the next cell it can see, but because the road you're on is at the cell boundaries, just as soon as it's done one handoff, it needs to restart it to handle the new cell.

      These edge cases cause all sorts of thread timing issues which can expose vulnerabilities, or even smash the stack.

      Many years ago, I worked on a cellphone design. We discovered through user testing that the subway would routinely crash the modem firmware (when it goes into a tunnel suddenly and then exits it) All we could do is simply ask for firmware updates and providing them with logs of the modem and keep re-trying the scenario.

    4. Re:Better certification system needed. by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Actually, it's a fairly difficult problem because you're talking real time systems verification and dozens of threads that can interact with each other, only a tiny combination of which if a packet of type Z arrives and within 1.2 ms a packet of type Y comes in, there's an exploitable window of 50 ms where if you send a packet of type A, the modem drops.

      It's a heavily multitasked system of which there's at least a couple of processors mandatory (a DSP and a control processor) all trying to handle dozens of events that can happen.

      ...

      These edge cases cause all sorts of thread timing issues which can expose vulnerabilities, or even smash the stack.

      I'm aware of the multitasked/pipelined nature of GSM decoding which is exactly why formal verification should be used for implementations. Timing issues are absolutely an issue and formal verification can help identify when, where and how they happen. A bulletproof implementation isn't impossible, it's simply not a priority because there has been no public exposure of just how weak these systems can be.

      We discovered through user testing that the subway would routinely crash the modem firmware (when it goes into a tunnel suddenly and then exits it) All we could do is simply ask for firmware updates and providing them with logs of the modem and keep re-trying the scenario.

      If this issue had been identified during the design phase (via formal verification) then you would have been able to properly address the issue.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    5. Re:Better certification system needed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wont happen.
      The patent system and like Qialcomm say 'no thanks' to any help - meaning the best minds are not nailing it to improve product. This is why USA is loosing more and more whenfab it/ make it myself actually becomes attractive..

      5G is interesting. Early reports said power consumption was an issue - even intel.
      Soon we will have multiple vendors with functionally alike chips. bye bye fat profits and unreasonable terms.

      This is the direct result of price gourging and threats to withold supply.

    6. Re:Better certification system needed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the same thing happens today too - if the modem crashes, you send the firmware logs to the vendor and retry with the fix. they usually tell you that some assert failed, I always was thinking that I am not allowed to know what really happened, but once I saw some internal info on the failure which showed it was an assert failure. now I believe that the modem code is full of asserts :)

  6. Re:Already on 5G. Thanks marketing. by Trip+Ericson · · Score: 1

    I assume you mean AT&T. Sprint is the one suing AT&T for rebranding their LTE as "5G E".

  7. Re:Already on 5G. Thanks marketing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't confuse him, he doesn't know who his phone service provider is!

    Anyway, I'm jealous, my Sprint phone (s9) doesn't even show 4G, just says LTE, and since there are no stated plans for 5G in my suburb, I don't expect to see it for years. Heck, I just started getting LTE in 2018!

  8. QUALC*NTSUBALL in 5...4...3...2... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, you know - gotta stifle competition somehow

  9. Re:Already on 5G. Thanks marketing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't confuse him, he doesn't know who his phone service provider is!

    Anyway, I'm jealous, my Sprint phone (s9) doesn't even show 4G, just says LTE, and since there are no stated plans for 5G in my suburb, I don't expect to see it for years. Heck, I just started getting LTE in 2018!

    WTF, seriously, you must live in the middle of fucking nowhere.

  10. They will be the hottest chips by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    This is Samsung that we are talking about - they don't do anything that is short of explosive; after all, Samsung is a company on fire.

  11. Might wait this out another year... by SuperKendall · · Score: 1

    I was kind of planning to get a new phone this year, but given how the real 5G rollout has gone just now, I am not thinking there will be much point in owning a 5G phone even by winter... maybe at the end of next year the network and the hardware will be stabilized.

    On a side-note, if you read that article it has an aside about how they are using a phone that has a separate battery for 5G so it doesn't eat the main battery!!! That is nuts to me.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:Might wait this out another year... by Dorianny · · Score: 3, Informative

      Smartphone 5G is of little use to anyone that doesn't live in a density populated area where airwaves congestion is a real issue. The networks should be subsidizing 5G radio's, it is a technology that mainly benefits them by getting the most bang with the least amount of frequency space

  12. Re:Already on 5G. Thanks marketing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LTE is 4g.

  13. So soon you can burn through your quota in seconds by ffkom · · Score: 2

    The only noticeable difference for most users will be that they can then burn through their "monthly included volume" in seconds rather than minutes. Hurray, modern technology!

  14. My bosses falled for it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They do believe in the 5G marketing campaign and think it will ease our problems, I felt like I should not say anything about it, so much hopes and hype, I would felt like a dick for pinching their balloon, so I just nodded while thinking seriously about my future... Last time I had to explain a lot about how our consulter basically ripped off the company and it was legal.

  15. Re:Already on 5G. Thanks marketing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WTF by those standards most of the US is in the middle of nowhere.

  16. There will be more security/spying warnings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And soon there will be announcement by the Five Eyes, that Samsung is selling data to the Chinese government, and it's 5G technology is best to be avoided fro security reasons.