Apple and Qualcomm are progressing nicely with their custom SoC designs, while Samsung and MediaTek continue to play catch-up, thanks to relying on ARM’s CPU cores for years. Unfortunately, for the Korean giant, that was a necessary transition, as the company was forced to drop its adoption of Mongoose cores after witnessing better results from utilizing Cortex designs. However, a major change might be in order, because a new report states that Samsung has formed a ‘Custom SoC Development Team’ aimed to boost competition against its rivals by developing an in-house solution from scratch.

The Exynos 2600 could be Samsung’s last chipset to rely on ARM’s CPU designs, as the company apparently wants an entirely custom solution

Previous benchmark leaks have confirmed that the Exynos 2600 will feature ARM’s Cortex designs, but Samsung’s current strategy might be a thing of the past as Chosun reports that the company’s Device Solutions arm has formed a brand new team aimed at ensuring complete autonomy that’s similar to Apple and Qualcomm. In short, Samsung will shift away from an outsourcing model and move towards developing in-house SoC architecture, IP, AI, and Neural Processing Units, completing the package.

The new team will reportedly be led by Vice President Park Bong-il, a SoC design expert who previously led the Device Solutions division's custom semiconductor development. Samsung’s biggest strength in developing in-house chipsets is that it already makes custom camera sensors, and it has a foundry business that is currently in the middle of fulfilling chips for various customers like Tesla and Chinese cryptocurrency clients on its cutting-edge 2nm GAA process.

The firm’s internal supply chain web can ensure that Samsung’s chipset costs are lower as opposed to Apple and Qualcomm, who send their newer designs to TSMC for tape-out first before they enter mass production, which is a step that alone costs millions of dollars. Experts believe that this shift might be a way to respond to new big tech clients.

Like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoCs, Samsung’s in-house Exynos do not have to be limited to the company’s own devices and can be outsourced to different customers. However, Samsung first needs to prove that its foundry can stand ‘toe to toe’ with TSMC, while also demonstrating that its in-house designs can match those of Apple and Qualcomm, which are released every year.

By: DocMemory
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