Samsung to Rival Apple Silicon by Developing Custom PC and Mobile Processors

[MacRumors]

Samsung plans to rival Apple silicon by developing its own custom processors for future smartphones and personal computers in an effort to develop more advanced chips.

According to Business Korea, Samsung has already formed an internal team dedicated to CPU core development and has recruited Rahul Tuli, a former AMD developer, to lead the group.

Samsung has traditionally relied on British chip company Arm for its Exynos advanced processors, but developing the chips in-house would allow it to take full control of the design and optimization process, similar to Apple's transition away from Intel.

The first application processor (AP) is said to be dubbed Galaxy Chip, and could be available in 2025. However, this chip will likely have a CPU based on Arm technology, since Samsung has only just initiated development of its own CPU core.

"Samsung Electronics will be able to boost completion level of its Galaxy Chip if it successfully develops a CPU core," Korean outlet Pulse News quoted an unnamed industry official as saying. "It will be able to load its own CPU in 2027 if development is carried out as planned."

This isn't the first time that Samsung has developed its own CPU. The company has been building its own development team and investing in technology since the early 2010s to build its own design capabilities.

However, Samsung folded the project because its CPU cores were deemed inferior to those of competitors such as Qualcomm in terms of power efficiency, heat generation, and multi-core efficiency. In 2019, the company officially scrapped the project and laid off more than 300 developers at the Samsung Austin Research Center (SARC).

Since 2020, Apple has been working to transition away from Intel chips, instead using its own Apple silicon chips. Apple's custom chips are Arm-based and are similar to the A-series chips used in iPhones and iPads, and Apple unveiled the first Apple silicon Macs in November 2020.

Apple's chips bring a whole new level of performance with more powerful Macs that are also more energy-efficient. With Apple designing its own chips for iOS devices and Macs, there is a common architecture across all Apple product lines, which also makes it easier for developers to write and optimize software that runs on all Apple products.

Apple has almost completed its transition away from Intel to Apple silicon, with one Intel Mac computer still waiting to be updated: The Mac Pro. Apple is said to be testing a new Mac Pro with Apple silicon, with a view to releasing it in the summer.

Article Link: Samsung to Rival Apple Silicon by Developing Custom PC and Mobile Processors

 

[dantracht]

Do they have one original idea that Apple didn’t perfect first?

 

[MayaUser]

Thats great but Samsung cannot do software, badaOS is dead so they need a partnership with Microsoft for Windows devices...and we know already how this will work

 

[StellarVixen]

Exynos doesn't really have a good reputation, many European customers of Samsung's phones are disappointed that they have to use phones with Exynos. Compared to Qualcomm's Snapdragon, Exynos is mostly inferior option. (Samsung doesn't sell Snapdragon Galaxy S phones in Europe at all).

Maybe something will change, we will see.

 

[floral]

All I can really say without being shot down is "Good luck".

 

[vertsix]

lol good luck have fun

if samsung's 5lpp or 4lpp nodes are anything to go by, they will run hot and be power suckers

 

[macsplusmacs]

LOL.

As they say in Latin:

Goodus Luckus.

 

[drcre8tive]

Samsung manufactured the first iterations of Apple silicon, so this isn't surprising.

 

[nylonsteel]

both companies devloping custom processors - next move ai

 

[winxmac]

Their Exynos are not at the level of Qualcomm Snapdragon yet but they are looking to be equal with Apple Silicon?

 

[c84216]

So I respect that everyone wants to make their own chips but fragmentation in the chip market is baaaaad news. Apple got away with it in their devices because they make the software and the hardware (where have I heard that being a good thing before?). No one else does except Google and they just started last year. And we've seen what a headache all the different chip variants have caused for Android stability and timely updates.

Unless someone comes up with another mechanism for software to be updated and tested on a variety of chipsets (this also includes software written by multitudes of devs of all walks of life, not just OS people), this is just going to cause problems on so many levels.

 

[LeadingHeat]

This isn't the first time that Samsung has developed its own CPU. The company has been building its own development team and investing in technology since the early 2010s to build its own design capabilities.

However, Samsung folded the project because its CPU cores were deemed inferior to those of competitors such as Qualcomm in terms of power efficiency, heat generation, and multi-core efficiency. In 2019, the company officially scrapped the project and laid off more than 300 developers at the Samsung Austin Research Center (SARC).

So 4 years ago they fired 300 employees, and now they’re resurrecting the program again? Okay, Google

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Good luck Samsung. You're gonna need it, since your phone processors are terrible, slower, and more expensive than the Qualcomm variants in your phones.

Like I said many times: ARM desktop/laptop computing is gonna be Mac dominated since the competition isn't anywhere close to M1/M2's power and software and haven't for years. Even the ARM Linux community (including Linus Torvalds himself) have gone Mac because the other ARM desktops aren't even close.

 

[blazerunner]

Do they have one original idea that Apple didn’t perfect first?

To be fair, nearly all of Apple's best creations have been either bought or stolen or other ideas as well.

 

[blazerunner]

The Samsung hate in this thread and across all the die hard Apple cheerleaders is embarrassing. Guess all you would rather have Apple be the only player and suck every penny out of you all, huh?

If competition didn't exist, none of you would have your precious iPhones. Just ask Steve Jobs what competition meant back in 1997....

Christ, the comments here are pathetic and cringe.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

How is this even news, the first several iPhones had Samsung processors.
iPhone 2G and 3G:
Samsung 32-bit RISCARM 1176JZ(F)-S v1.0[4] 620 MHz, Underclocked to 412 MHz
iPhone 3GS:

Samsung S5PC100
	600 MHz ARM Cortex-A8

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Competition is good. I hope they make some spectacular chips to spur Apple on to trying to stay well ahead in custom Silicon. Samsung has brought a lot of things out ahead of Apple and now we benefit from Apple taking from them (too). Hopefully, they come up with some goodies in their own chips and Apple incorporates any advantages into their own. I'd much rather have multiple competitors innovating great new features than one "king" able to lay back and get fat on incremental updates.

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I think Samsung is a little too late. We're almost towards M3 chips from Apple. However, competition is a good thing.

 

[tdar]

What will be interesting is whether they build a cpu for their windows pc’s and Windows for Arm. Something that is different needed in the windows world.

 

[SmugMaverick]

Exynos doesn't really have a good reputation, many European customers of Samsung's phones are disappointed that they have to use phones with Exynos. Compared to Qualcomm's Snapdragon, Exynos is mostly inferior option. (Samsung doesn't sell Snapdragon Galaxy S phones in Europe at all).

Maybe something will change, we will see.

They did this year finally.

All models have a special version of the latest snapdragon made for Galaxy.

 

[MauiPa]

Maybe they will also ditch android to tightly couple the OS with the hardware. wait, didn't someone already have that idea? Not digging on android, it is just that android has to support so many hardware flavors, it loses its tightly integrated chops. If anyone is big enough to do it, it would be Samsung. I can see the benefit of having universal android apps that Samsung can utilize, but surely there would be a way to still be android, but be Samsung specific

 

[roar08]

The world's first folding processors!

 

[Sciomar]

Competition is great, but they have a huge hill to climb before even being considered a rival. Hopefully this chipset development leads to better processors in their tv sets as well.

 

[SmugMaverick]

Maybe they will also ditch android to tightly couple the OS with the hardware. wait, didn't someone already have that idea? Not digging on android, it is just that android has to support so many hardware flavors, it loses its tightly integrated chops. If anyone is big enough to do it, it would be Samsung. I can see the benefit of having universal android apps that Samsung can utilize, but surely there would be a way to still be android, but be Samsung specific

With the latest One UI 5.1 on the S23 models it’s apparently really smooth and lag free, they’re using a special snapdragon for Galaxy chip and it seems to be working well.

If they can keep their version of Android running super smooth like a Pixel then they’re on the right track.

 

[tdar]

Do they have one original idea that Apple didn’t perfect first?

We kinda stole this one from them. They made the first CPU’s for the iPhone before Apple made them themselves.