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Samsung might be breaking off its reliance on ARM for future Exynos chip designs, a new report suggests.
Business Korea reports that Samsung’s Executive Vice Chariman lee Jae-yong has ‘directly instructed’ the company to begin producing its own processor core technology.
Samsung currently produces its own mobile chipsets – the Exynos series – which means it doesn’t need to rely on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips.
It produces the latest Exynos 7420 SoC with its own 14nm FinFET manufacturing process too, further staving off third-party dependence.
However, Samsung still makes use of ARM’s processor designs, including in its flagship 7420 chip, which appears on the new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge.
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The article suggests that Samsung will instead produce its own custom cores however, and plans to ‘see results’ with the project by Q1 2016 ‘at the latest’.
Both Apple and Qualcomm already have their own custom core technology inside their mobile application processors, putting Samsung at a significant disadvantage.
If Samsung can successfully produce its own processor cores, however, it can control its entire chip production process from start to finish.
Along with a new custom-built application processor, Samsung is also tipped to begin producing its own CPUs and GPUs for PCs.
It’s likely that these will also land alongside the new AP early next year, although Samsung hasn’t officially confirmed any such timeline for the new components just yet.