Samsung Working With Google to Build a Custom Exynos Chipset: Report

This rumoured custom Exynos chipset is expected to be based on Samsung’s 5nm LPE process, and is expected to arrive this year.

By Tasneem Akolawala | Updated: 9 April 2020 15:57 IST

Samsung Working With Google to Build a Custom Exynos Chipset: Report

Google will use its own ISP and NPU in the Exynos chipset

Highlights

The Exynos chip will use ARM’s unannounced Mali MP20 GPU
Google’s Exynos chip will be based on Samsung’s 5nm LPE process
A custom SoC team has been built within the Device Solution division

Samsung and Google are reportedly working on building a new custom Exynos chipset, and Google looks to launch it as soon as this year. For this new chip, Samsung has removed its own image signal processor (ISP) and neural processing unit (NPU), and have integrated Google's visual core and the search giant's NPU instead. A report suggests that the custom Exynos chipset will be based on Samsung's 5nm LPE process, and will use ARM's unannounced Mali MP20 GPU.

As per a tipster on a Korean forum, this custom Exynos chipset will be launched by Google this year. This chip will feature eight CPU cores with four Cortex-A55, two Cortex-A78 cores, and two Cortex-A76. Apart from using Google's NPU and ISP, the custom Exynos chipset will integrate ARM's unannounced Mali MP20 GPU that is based on Borr microarchitecture. Little is known about this GPU as of now.

According to a report by ETNews, Samsung has even built its own custom SoC team within the Device Solutions Division, and looks to tap large IT customers in the future. It consists of 30 people at the moment, but Samsung plans to add more people in the future. The team has been made with the vision to become the biggest system semiconductor company by 2030. This team is headed by Foundry ASIC team member Park Jin-pyo.

All of this refutes previous claims of Samsung giving up on its Exynos chip business. The mobile processor chips division has struggled to find external customers, and the US research division was reported to be shutting down, making some 300 jobs redundant.

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