Samsung is shutting down its custom CPU core department, will use standard ARM cores

04 November 2019
The Exynos 9830 will likely be the first chipset to ditch the Mongoose custom cores.

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Jaeger, 04 Nov 2019Exynos chipsets need improvements, not hate.Not at the cost of consumer's money.

    Samsung is NOT moving to only Qualcom made processors/SoCs. It will merely move to ARM designed cores instead of Mongoose ones. That's the sole difference.
    Of the 8 Cores on the Exynos processors, the Mongoose comes were the worst performing ones. And since they were also the largest cores, they were the worst for energy and heat management, and they were also responsible for pulling down the overall performance of the SoC.

      People have strange reactions without understanding enough.

      This is what simply happened. Samsung have a division in Austin, USA, where it employed 290 people, for the specific purpose of marking custom cores, named the Mongoose Cores, to compete with the cores designed by ARM. This was a monumental failure, for almost every generation (and 10 Years in Total) of the Exynos processor except one, and this division pulled down the profits of the company making it lose a few $Billions (I am guessing between $3-10 Billion in investment alone and much more in losses, due to not making much cheaper, ARM licensed technology). More shockingly, the Mongoose cores, along with the ARM GPUs were the main reason for the underwhelming performance of the Exynos chips in the real world and superb on paper. I wrote long ago that Samsung must collaborate with AMD or NVidia for GPUs, and luckily that has happened.

      This may seem like a sad day for Samsung's SoC division, but that is really not the case. It still has it's own design team for actually making the SoC with teams for GPUs, CPUs, the imaging processor (ISP), the AI chip, the wifi chip, the various connectivity chips etc. The list is practically endless.

      The problem was not that the Mongoose team was wasting money, or time (both of which it was in a big way), but the fact that it pulled down Samsung's ENTIRE SoC design, because the chip was both low on performance and was also poor on energy management. Samsung has well over 3000 people in the Austin facility, and those propel are doing just fine.

      Now it needs to tap its Memory and Imaging Sensor Advantage and use that for making better SoCs that the completion. The ARM licence and AMD SoC GPU collab should help it with Exynos in 2020 and beyond.

      Good decision Samsung.

        ProMaster96, 04 Nov 2019It obviously money is the main reason. Paying license fee f... moreThey still pay ARM may that be custom or not.

          Android is boring, 05 Nov 2019Monopoly of qualcomm. All android will use the same chip... moreWhy stop at Qualcomm? Talking about monopoly, ARM Holdings exist my dudes.

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            • Tarak
            • ps8
            • 05 Nov 2019

            Common mistake is to think that Exynos is powerful enough anyway, you ain't need Snapdragon. Well, its about power consumption and how Exynos needs more power to generate the same speed as its counterpart. Good riddance I say, their team had their chance to beat Snapdragon but Samsung has to stop burning their money on inferior product that no one except Samsung uses.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • uJD
              • 05 Nov 2019

              Good, Samsung's SoC is always worse then Qualcomm.

              They know its bad.. and just decided to give up on the chase.

                • Y
                • Yee
                • mx2
                • 05 Nov 2019

                I'm sorry for the job losses, but happy that there will be less crap on offer from samsung!
                Peace

                  Anonymous, 04 Nov 2019Again....you must not have ever followed to know anything r... moreLet's clear something up.

                  Exynos 4412 (Galaxy S3) = Snapdragon S4.
                  Exynos 5410 (Galaxy S4) = Snapdragon 600.
                  Exynos 5422 (Galaxy S5) < Snapdragon 801 (MSM8974AC).
                  Exynos 7420 (Galaxy S6) > Snapdragon 810.
                  Exynos 8890 (Galaxy S7) = Snapdragon 820.
                  Exynos 8895 (Galaxy S8) = Snapdragon 835.
                  Exynos 9810 (Galaxy S9) < Snapdragon 845.
                  Exynos 9820 (Galaxy S10) < Snapdragon 855.

                  I went through all the benchmarks in every Galaxy since the S3, (shown in this very site) and they show you are wrong. Besides, Snapdragon chips have always been better than Exynos in network compatibility. My SD845 Note9 is able to pick up LTE signal where an Exynos-powered phone can't. Even a Huawei Mate 20 lite I used to have, with a Kirin 710, could pick up LTE signal in the same location.

                  As I always say, read before commenting.

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • NL{
                    • 05 Nov 2019

                    chester, 04 Nov 2019S11...now in limbo Lol....Samsung...loading disc error ... moreScrew physics right?
                    S11 not being there? Are you high?

                      • x
                      • xxy
                      • tVn
                      • 05 Nov 2019

                      i think high end chipset nowadays is already powerful to power a smartphone..i used the regular galaxy note 10. no lagging and smooth for gaming is enough. why need even faster one. they just need to improve the battery, heating issue, and refresh rate. In gaming, noob will always be noob no matter what phone they are using. Overpowered SoC in benchmark is for what when phone is only for basic task unlike PC. Im only impress when the phone can run graphic demand modelling software and AutoCAD. Or else benchmark is just a number. No more than that

                        That's too bad. Less competition is never good, while the single core mongoose performance was great :(

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                          • Android is boring
                          • Kxu
                          • 05 Nov 2019

                          Monopoly of qualcomm.

                          All android will use the same chip per year. How boring. But actually... most android are already using the same cpu.. how boring!

                            • L
                            • Luxor
                            • KZK
                            • 05 Nov 2019

                            mixa, 04 Nov 2019Why even bother making these weird and inefficient Exynos S... moreWhat would they do if the ban come slapping on their face without a backup plan? Can't simply just get rid of it but can change how it is build.

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • PIu
                              • 05 Nov 2019

                              lacp, 04 Nov 2019Then Mediatek, Kirin should die also to the sake of the Soc... moreMediatek SOC will never die. as the price always competitive with performance offered..
                              Mediatek already 30 years in making chipset controller since 1998 television DVD player era..
                              They always give good price..

                                • ?
                                • Anonymous
                                • atf
                                • 04 Nov 2019

                                Samsung needs to make there own OS to use there own powerful custom exyons.

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • atf
                                  • 04 Nov 2019

                                  KamAbdi, 04 Nov 2019I think Samsung did wrong move because even their chipset w... moreAgree with you.

                                  Ps. Apple soon going to get ride of Qualcomm modem for there own modem

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • atf
                                    • 04 Nov 2019

                                    Anandtech kills Samsung custom Soc.

                                      S11...now in limbo

                                      Lol....Samsung...loading disc error

                                      Maybe there won't be an S11 after all...

                                      Restarting everything from scratch maybe three best way for Samsung flagships ....S11 must have:
                                      5G NSA & SA,
                                      +4500maH battery,
                                      1440p display,
                                      6 cameras including ToF in front & back,
                                      headphone Jack,
                                      In display fingerprint reader,
                                      CPU/GPU....TBA
                                      Less than 180g
                                      Less than 15cm tall

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • I8m
                                        • 04 Nov 2019

                                        Andrews, 04 Nov 2019Though S8 was the last good one,8895 wasn't superior to SD835It was better in cpu, efficiency, and audio. As well as was fairly close in gpu.

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