Samsung first revealed back in 2013 that it would build a mobile application processor with ARM’s 64-bit processor cores. We have seen the manifestation of this idea in the form of Exynos 7420, that the processor powering the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. The company also said that it will develop a chip with its own custom cores by 2016. Apparently the company will have its custom mobile CPU cores ready by the first quarter of 2016.
ARM currently license its processor cores, called Cortex, to Samsung. Qualcomm is licensing these cores as well for the 64-bit Snapdragon 810. Samsung then puts the cores in its Exynos chips. Having its own mobile CPU cores would eliminate the need to license from ARM.
Reports coming out of Korea suggest that Samsung is expecting to see results by the first quarter of 2016 “at the latest” as far as the development of its custom mobile CPU cores goes.
This can’t be taken as a guarantee that by early next year Samsung will have a SoC ready with its own cores but the possibility exists that the chip could debut with the Galaxy S7.
There have also been reports that Samsung is looking to develop its own custom mobile GPU. Some expect that it will have the GPU in mass production later this year.
