Samsung was expected to develop an in-house GPU and start using it in smartphones and tablets in 2015. Later, the company signed a technology agreement with ARM to use its GPUs inside Exynos chipsets, delaying the development of its in-house graphics technology. Last year, we reported that the company is in talks with AMD and Nvidia for GPU-related licenses. It is now being reported that Samsung has finally developed its first-generation GPU.
According to the latest report, Samsung is internally calling its first in-house GPU “S-GPU“. It is expected to appear in the flagship Exynos chipset next year after the company completes its full testing. The company already makes custom CPU cores (based on ARMv8 ISA from ARM) and cellular radios. After it starts integrating S-GPU inside its Exynos next-generation chipsets, its new SoCs will be completely custom, similar to mobile chipsets from Qualcomm.
Samsung needs its first-generation GPU to be more powerful than current-generation solutions from ARM, PowerVR, and Qualcomm to make a mark in the mobile market. It also needs to support Vulkan and better performance in VR apps and games.
