Leading the pack when it comes to raw mobile processing power is Qualcomm, with their latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8xxx chipsets. However, the company's dominance may be short-lived if the latest reports from Taiwan are to be believed. Mediatek and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) are apparently now developing a brand new mobile processing unit that is aimed at taking on the latest from Qualcomm using a cutting edge 7nm manufacturing process.

According to a report from DigiTimes, both companies are reportedly in the process of developing their next generation mobile processors that will have a total of 12 cores embedded into it. This is achieved through the use of the aforementioned 7nm manufacturing process. In contrast, one of the most powerful mobile CPUs to date, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, utilizes the currently available 10nm manufacturing process.

Mediatek currently offers a number of products that are also based on the 10nm manufacturing process, namely their Deca-core Helio X20 and X25 chipsets. The company is also in the process of finalizing their latest 10nm-based flagship, the Helio X30, which should be coming out sometime this year.

The company's CPU offerings, equipped with 10 CPU cores, are already quite powerful when compared to other competing chipsets. However, it seems like Mediatek will not be satisfied until they build the most powerful commercially available chipsets and take the throne away from Qualcomm.

If they do succeed in building mobile processors based on the 7nm manufacturing process, the new CPUs will likely exceed the performance and power savings of any 10nm-based mobile CPUs available today. Additionally, GSM Arena reports that Samsung and TSMC may be working together to mass produce the new chips by early 2018. The means that next year could see the proliferation of 12-core smartphones, with the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S9 likely being the first to sport the new CPU.