News Samsung Reportedly Speeds up In-House CPU Core Development, With Ex-AMD Senior Developer

[Admin]

Samsung has reportedly accelerated its in-house CPU development project, and is aiming to have a non-Arm CPU ready for smartphones and laptops by 2027.

Samsung Reportedly Speeds up In-House CPU Core Development, With Ex-AMD Senior Developer : Read more

 

[RichardtST]

Doesn't much matter. My S22 Ultra with the screaming fast processor and 120hz screen runs for all of two minutes before it overheats and goes into extra-slow mode. Between that and the nvme fiasco they've lost all my trust. Won't be buying anything from them again. I pay extra for QUALITY. I'm not an Apple fanboy paying extra just for the sake of paying extra....

 

[peachpuff]

Because one senior amd developer is going to fix everything? Good luck with that...

 

[RedBear87]

I'm quite puzzled by this article, the original Pulse article doesn't mention anywhere that they want to develop a new architecture, it says that Samsung wants "its own CPU core"; this likely implies that instead of using ARM's licensed cores (e.g. Cortex X2, Cortex A78, etc.), which are becoming increasingly inefficient, they want to develop their own CPU core, but still based on the ARM ISA, just like Apple Silicon or even Samsung's own Mongoose core used in the Exynos series back in the days.

 

[bit_user]

Samsung has had a rather troubled history in developing its own CPU and GPU cores. Anandtech dutifully chronicled their progress, and Andrei Frumusanu wrote a nice epilogue of their custom core efforts:

• https://www.anandtech.com/show/15061/samsung-to-cease-custom-cpu-development
• https://www.anandtech.com/show/15826/isca-2020-evolution-of-the-samsung-exynos-cpu-microarchitecture

And of their in-house GPU program, which they scrapped in favor of licensing AMD's RDNA (according to the first link, just as their in-house GPU efforts were coming to fruition... perhaps even spurring the switch to RDNA by falling short of expectations?):

• https://www.anandtech.com/show/1448...aphics-ip-licensing-deal-for-slsi-mobile-gpus
• https://www.anandtech.com/show/14492/samsung-amds-gpu-licensing-an-interesting-collaboration

I just hope Samsung learned a thing or two from their prior efforts and doesn't repeat the same mistakes. It sounds as if the CPU team was too resource-starved to continue developing their cores at a competitive pace.

 

[bit_user]

the issue of software compatibility would also need to be addressed. Also, like when Apple moved from Intel to Apple Silicon, it might need to support some kind of emulation layer, which slows architectural performance gains, to smooth the transition period.

If it's not ARM ISA, then it'll definitely be RISC-V. There's no other viable option, given the amount of software that would have to be rewritten.

Second, as long as it's an ISA that's officially supported by Android, it's meaningless to talk about emulation. Sure, Android has a NDK and that makes it possible to write native code for one architecture and not others, but Android is about as ISA-agnostic as anything out there. Plus, I expect we'll see a lot of smartphone activity on the RISC-V front, which means game engines and other important NDK-users will start adding native support for RISC-V, also.

 

[bit_user]

Because one senior amd developer is going to fix everything? Good luck with that...

From the article:

​

since mid-2021 it has been hiring engineers from AMD and Apple to form a new custom architecture team. Pulse News notes, specifically, that a senior developer that was responsible for CPU development at AMD is now leading a team “dedicated to CPU core development.”​

​

 

[Findecanor]

Samsung has an "architectural license" for the 64-bit ARM architecture. (At least, I can find web sources from 2021 that say that they do)

It means that Samsung has the same right as Apple, Qualcomm and AMD to design and market their own processor cores that run ARM code.
This is most likely what they are planning to do.

 

[sygreenblum]

Samsung has an "architectural license" for the 64-bit ARM architecture. (At least, I can find web sources from 2021 that say that they do)

It means that Samsung has the same right as Apple, Qualcomm and AMD to design and market their own processor cores that run ARM code.
This is most likely what they are planning to do.

That's indeed true and would make the most sense although this article seems indicate they are moving away from arm in general. This would leave pretty much only Risc-v as an option. Building a new architecture from the ground up is incredibly difficult and few succeed especially nowadays. Even Apple and it's unlimited budget chose to go with their own version of Arm. This is why I happen agree with you. In all likelihood it will be a custom Arm as a completely new architecture would be a tremendous undertaking. Not to mention the massive stack of software that would need to be rewritten.

Arms fees are actually pretty reasonable so the only real advantage for Samsung if they went Risc-V is the freedom to do whatever they want with the architecture.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

After the steaming pile of poo my Galaxy S22+ has been, and the below market value trade in amounts Samsung offered people for their S22 series devices, it wouldn't matter to me if Galaxy phones outperformed Apple and Pixel devices by over 100%, I still wouldn't use them.

 

[bit_user]

Even Apple and it's unlimited budget chose to go with their own version of Arm.

Apple had a lot invested in ARM, from their decades of using it in iPods and iPhones. The cores in their ARM-based Macs are even reused from their phone SoCs.

Arms fees are actually pretty reasonable

They might not always be. And if Samsung ever wanted to sell its SoCs to 3rd parties, they could face the same issues that ARM is currently fighting Qualcomm over.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/arm-sues-qualcomm-and-nuvia-for-breaking-license-agreement

 

[Amdlova]

Samsung sheep here. Samsung can try everything, but what system will use? Become the new hauweii? I don't like android, (Nokia user) miss the Symbian...

 

[healthy Pro-teen]

After the steaming pile of poo my Galaxy S22+ has been, and the below market value trade in amounts Samsung offered people for their S22 series devices, it wouldn't matter to me if Galaxy phones outperformed Apple and Pixel devices by over 100%, I still wouldn't use them.

I personally haven't had with my S22U and my Mom's S22+. Also I agree that $250 for an S22+ is pretty bad, with APPLE its $225. I can get way more selling it on Ebay or something. Or if you have a carrier like Verizon that offers better value trade in.

 

[jkflipflop98]

miss the Symbian...

Don't Google that, kids.

 

[Findecanor]

Don't Google that, kids.

There was a time period when you couldn't safely google for "Symbian" without getting wrong results, but that has been fixed.

You can google it safely now, just spell it correctly !

 

[gg83]

Because one senior amd developer is going to fix everything? Good luck with that...

Right? They have been trying with cpus for years and always end up using Qualcomm chips.

 

[Casuarius (Cassowary)]

Doesn't much matter. My S22 Ultra with the screaming fast processor and 120hz screen runs for all of two minutes before it overheats and goes into extra-slow mode. Between that and the nvme fiasco they've lost all my trust. Won't be buying anything from them again. I pay extra for QUALITY. I'm not an Apple fanboy paying extra just for the sake of paying extra....

The S22U doesn't overheat too much.

 

[Casuarius (Cassowary)]

Right? They have been trying with cpus for years and always end up using Qualcomm chips.

They end up using Exynos chipsets in the most cases.

 

[gg83]

They end up using Exynos chipsets in the most cases.

So only for the flagship phones they use Qualcomm? Or maybe just the US market?

 

[RedBear87]

So only for the flagship phones they use Qualcomm? Or maybe just the US market?

Until the S21 they used Qualcomm only for the US, Canada, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. But the S22 was launched with the overhyped Exynos 2200 (featuring RDNA2 graphics) only in Europe, Middle East and Africa (other markets, including South Korea and India, that used to receive the Exynos version, got the Qualcomm one). Lastly the S23 marked the switch to Qualcomm worldwide. It's worth noting that Samsung's other high end devices, the Z series, were always released only with Qualcomm chips since their launch in 2019. In the middle and low end it's a mix, Samsung uses mostly its own Exynos chips (which tend to perform badly as usual), but there are also middle range devices released worldwide with Qualcomm SoCs (e.g. A52, both 4G and 5G variants) and low end devices released with Mediatek SoCs (e.g. original A12). A special place should be held for the A03 Core released in 2021 with an Unisoc chip manufactured on 28nm...

 

[Timati]

The Samsung S21 marked a shift in the company's processor strategy, as it launched with Qualcomm chipsets globally instead of only in certain markets such as the US, Canada, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The S22 saw the introduction of a custom-built Exynos 2200 processor with RDNA2 graphics, which was released to Europe, the Middle East and Africa. However, other markets such as South Korea and India received the Qualcomm version for the S22. This trend was reversed and the S23 was released with Qualcomm processors globally. Samsung's Z series, meanwhile, has been using Qualcomm chipsets since its introduction in 2019, and the company has continued to utilize Mediatek and Unisoc chipsets
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[RedBear87]

The Samsung S21 marked a shift in the company's processor strategy, as it launched with Qualcomm chipsets globally instead of only in certain markets such as the US, Canada, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Nope, this is wrong. S21 still launched with Qualcomm only in those specific countries that you've listed: US, Canada, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The so called international model was Exynos based, my own daily device is an Exynos powered S21 Ultra (SM-G998B) from Saudi Arabia. Most notably the important South Korean and Indian markets still received the Exynos model with the S21. It was the S22 that marked the switch to Qualcomm for nearly everyone but the poor and neglected EMA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) users.