Samsung has recently opted to skip Qualcomm in a surprising move and introduced the Exynos 7240 with their flagship Galaxy S6 devices. Reports have it that they are extensively testing the Snapdragon 820, pitching it against their in-house chipsets to optimize and compare performance and power usage.
According to new rumors, the Korean manufacturer is also developing a new chipset aimed at the mid-priced segment. The report also suggests that the new chipset will be based on ARM’s Ananke cores. According to the rumor, the chipset will only be ready for testing by next year and will be integrated into devices as early as mid-2016. A while ago, in April, a slide revealed roadmaps of how ARM’s plans to launch five new CPU cores into the market in the upcoming time-frame with all their names being inspired by Greek mythology. Besides having optimization for smaller production processes like 16 nm and 10 nm, the new cores serve as a bridge between the current Cortex A-57 and A-53 with a whole new lineup of different chips. At the top of the line-up will help the Ares cores, replacing the Cortex A72, and are intended for use in high-end tablets, embedded tech, and high-end servers. Right after that would follow Prometheus replacing the A57, and then would come the mid-range core choices like Artemis, Ananke, and Mercury. Ananke and Mercury will hopefully support the big.LITTLE architecture, and will probably be the most widely utilized processor in the mid-range mobile market.
Ananke cores are built on the 10 nm process that suggests that the chipset should have lower energy requirements as compared to previous gen A53 cores, and be able to perform better under same loads. The same source reveals that the company is already planning a follow-up to Ananke, carrying the moniker Aura, which would be unveiled in 2017. With this move, Samsung is hoping to expand its Exynos lineup to include a larger number of mobiles. It won’t be surprising if other third party manufacturers utilize the Exynos chipset for use in their handsets in the future. By catering to the middle and lower segment, Samsung could end up being a serious competitor to Mediatek and Qualcomm in the chipset market, becoming a bigger presence in the industry.