Samsung is well underway with the production of a custom-built mobile processor core, a new report reveals.
We first heard rumours that the South Korean tech giant might be looking to design its own processors last month, eschewing reliance on ARM’s chip designs.
Now, it appears that Samsung’s new chip is already being supported by software tools, confirming the processor’s existence.
The latest versions of GNU Binutils – that’s a collection of binary tools used to develop software – includes support for the Samsung Exynos M1.
A separate report from last month revealed the much-mooted processor was being developed under the codename ‘Mongoose’. That appears to gel with the ‘M1’ moniker.
The new report also suggests that not only is Samsung developing a processor, but third-party ‘software partners’ also have access to the new chip.
This gives us a big clue as to when we’ll first see the chip; developers typically receive processor samples between 9 and 12 months prior to mass production.
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The Samsung Galaxy S7 is very likely to launch in Q1/Q2 next year, which means we could very well see the custom-built Exynos processor inside the company’s next flagship smartphone.
While Samsung used its own in-house Exynos system-on-a-chip inside the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, the chips relied on ARM’s processor designs.
If Samsung can produce its own processor, the company won’t need to rely on ARM’s new Cortex-A72 design that is expected to feature on future flagship smartphones from other brands.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.