LG starts making its own processors, reportedly with help from TSMC

LG Nuclun chips

LG may have been bumped down to sixth place in the “world’s top phone manufacturers” stakes (thanks a bunch, Xiaomi), but the Korean conglomerate hopes to aid its mobile efforts with a foray into the processor business.

On Friday LG announced an eight-core application processor called Nuclun that will debut in its upcoming G3 Screen smartphone, intended for the South Korean market only. Until now, LG has largely used Qualcomm chipsets in its handsets. Not many phone-makers use their own chips, apart from Apple and Samsung.

The Nuclun processor includes four 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A15 cores for heavy lifting and four 1.2GHz Cortex-A7 cores for lighter stuff, along with support for the new version of 4G, Category 6 LTE-Advanced (LTE-A), which supports maximum download speeds of up to 225Mbps.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the chips will be made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC), as LG doesn’t have its own chip fabs.

“With this in-house solution, we will be able to achieve better vertical integration and further diversity our product strategy against stronger competition,” LG mobile chief Jong-seok Park said in a statement. “Nuclun will give us greater flexibility in our mobile strategy going forward.”

If you’re interested in the G3 Screen (remember, South Korea only), then you’re looking at a 5.9-inch IPS screen, 32GB of inbuilt memory and a microSD slot, a 13MP rear camera with optical stabilization, a 2.1MP front camera and a 3,000mAh battery. The device weighs 182g, and will go on sale this week.

You're subscribed! If you like, you can update your settings

loading

Comments have been disabled for this post