LG Electronics is reportedly trying to lessen its dependence upon manufacturers of Application Processors (AP) for its smartphones, by producing its first in-house mobile application processor from the latter half of this year.

The Korean Times reported that LG Electronics' research lab recently completed the development of 'Odin' application processor (AP) for smartphones.

"LG Electronics is going to mass-produce the Odin processors by using finer 28nm level processing, applying high-k metal gate (HKMG) technology. The processors will be used in LG?s next flagship Optimus smartphone ― the Optimus GII ― which will probably be unveiled in this fall?s IFA trade fair," an LG official told the paper on Thursday.

The 'Odin' chip will have octa-core functionality, meaning the next LG handsets will be speedier and more powerful. TSMC will manufacture the chip, which will be based on ARM's big.LITTLE, architecture. Chips based on this architectural feature two quad-core processor clusters; one based on A15 cores and the other on A7 cores. The A15 core typically hasndles energy-intensive jobs such as graphics work or 3D gaming, while the A7 cores serve less demanding applicatioons such as web surfing.

Company spokesman G.W. Kim said that LG has been injecting more resources in smartphone-related projects to fully revive the business.