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Samsung is looking to take on Apple with its own custom processors for future smartphones and personal computers. The company has formed an internal team dedicated to CPU core development and has already recruited a former AMD developer, Rahul Tuli, to lead the group.
This move comes as Samsung aims to develop more advanced chips by taking full control of the design and optimization process, similar to Apple’s transition away from Intel. Samsung has traditionally relied on British chip company Arm for its Exynos advanced processors, but developing the chips in-house could give them an edge in the market.
According to Business Korea, 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 the development of its own CPU core.
An unnamed industry official told Korean outlet Pulse News, “Samsung Electronics will be able to boost the completion level of its Galaxy Chip if it successfully develops a CPU core. 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).
With Apple already ahead of the game in terms of custom processors, Samsung’s move to develop its own chips could help it catch up. Apple has been working to transition away from Intel chips since 2020, 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. In November 2020, Apple unveiled the first Apple silicon Macs, which brought a whole new level of performance with more powerful Macs that are also more energy-efficient.
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Apple’s chips have a common architecture across all Apple product lines, making 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.
Samsung’s decision to develop its own chips could lead to a new era of competition between the two tech giants, and it will be interesting to see how Samsung’s chips stack up against Apple’s in the years to come.
