Samsung to tap Xilinx chips for 5G network equipment

American semiconductor firm Xilinx Inc said on Wednesday it had won a deal to supply chips to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd for 5G networking equipment, Reuters reported.

Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Xilinx makes programmable chips used in telecommunications equipment such as base stations made by Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd [HWT.UL]. However, it was prevented from shipping some products to Huawei by U.S. authorities.

Samsung, known by consumers mainly for its mobile phones, has been building and expanding a business in the network equipment industry, powering many of the 5G networks rolled out in Korea.

The companies said Samsung will use Xilinx’s “Versal” computing chips, which will help with a technology called beamforming that lets 5G gear handle more wireless data than previous generations of networks.