Samsung To Follow Apple M1 Chips With AMD Graphics To Make New ARM-Based Exynos Chips

With a new ARM-based Exynos chip, Samsung could not only put Qualcomm under pressure in the notebook and smartphone sector but also compete against the Apple M1. In cooperation with AMD, a powerful processor is to be presented this year.

With regard to the production of new mobile processors with RDNA technologies, a collaboration between Samsung and AMD has been under discussion for almost two years. It was not until autumn 2020 that the rumors condensed into a new Exynos chip, but the targeted partnership has not yet borne fruit. As the Korea Economic Daily reports, citing industry-related sources, the South Korean manufacturer is said to have a new System on a Chip (SoC) in hand for the second half of 2021, primarily to compete against Qualcomm and Apple.

Focused on custom cores and AMD graphics

“The new Exynos will offer enhanced features through the use of 5-nanometer processing technology, including exceptional processing power and battery efficiency. It is suitable for both laptops and smartphones.” With these words, the Samsung insiders describe the new processor, which is based on ARM and basically resembles the chips from Qualcomm and Apple but is supposed to stand out from the two pioneers with Cortex-X custom cores and graphics units optimized by AMD. So far, Samsung has used Mali GPUs purchased directly from ARM, which puts current Exynos chips in the shadow of the Qualcomm Adreno range in terms of graphics performance.

Although “Windows 10 on ARM” has not yet caught on, especially in the local market, Samsung jumped on the bandwagon comparatively early. After its laptop comeback last year, both the Galaxy Book S and the new Galaxy Book Go were presented with the Snapdragon 8cx. Due to the pandemic-related lack of chips, however, almost exclusively Intel and AMD notebooks can currently be delivered. It remains to be seen whether the situation will improve in the second half of the year with Samsung’s own Exynos processors for smartphones and laptops.