Samsung announced that it has developed Exynos Modem 5100, the industry’s first 5G modem that is fully compatible with 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Built on 10-nanometer process technology, the new modem also supports legacy radio access technologies designed into a single chip.

Samsung successfully conducted an over-the-air (OTA) 5G-NR data call test under a wireless environment utilizing a 5G base station and 5G end-user equipment prototype embedded with Exynos Modem 5100. As the test simulated real-world cellular network conditions, this will ensure faster development and commercialization of 5G mobile devices that adopt this new modem.

The Exynos Modem 5100 supports both sub-6GHz and mmWave spectrums specified in 3GPP’s 5G standard as well as legacy networks, including 2G GSM/CDMA, 3G WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, HSPA, and 4G LTE, with a single chip solution. As 5G is expected to be first deployed over existing network infrastructures, commercial implementation will benefit from the single-chip design that maximizes data transmission efficiency and reliability between other communication networks.

The modem delivers a maximum downlink speed of up to 2 Gbps in 5G’s sub-6- GHz settings and 6Gbps in mmWave settings, which are about 1.7 and five times the data transfer speeds of its predecessor respectively. Fast and stable data communication can also be secured in 4G networks with the downlink speed of 1.6Gbps. Exynos Modem 5100 is also offered with radio frequency IC (RFIC), Envelope Tracking (ET) and power management IC (PMIC) solutions, and will be available to customers by the end of 2018.