Samsung just set up a Custom SoC Development Team because they're tired of getting dunked on by Apple and Qualcomm while relying on ARM's off-the-shelf CPU cores. Vice President Park Bong-il is heading up the effort to build chips completely from scratch instead of outsourcing designs, and the Exynos 2600 might be the last time they use ARM's Cortex stuff before going full custom.
The move makes sense since Samsung already manufactures camera sensors and runs its own foundry, cranking out 2nm chips for Tesla and crypto clients, which means their costs should be way lower than competitors who have to pay TSMC millions just for tape-out. They abandoned their Mongoose cores years ago after they flopped compared to ARM designs, but experts think this pivot could help them score contracts with other big tech companies if they can actually prove their foundry and chip designs can hang with the industry leaders.
The move makes sense since Samsung already manufactures camera sensors and runs its own foundry, cranking out 2nm chips for Tesla and crypto clients, which means their costs should be way lower than competitors who have to pay TSMC millions just for tape-out. They abandoned their Mongoose cores years ago after they flopped compared to ARM designs, but experts think this pivot could help them score contracts with other big tech companies if they can actually prove their foundry and chip designs can hang with the industry leaders.
