Dr. Chien-Ping Lu, an NVIDIA veteran who played a crucial role in the development of the RSX graphics chip that powered Sony’s PlayStation 3 console and contributed to a wide variety of other popular solutions in the segment, including those from MediaTek, is leading Samsung’s in-house efforts aimed at creating an entirely new GPU for Android smartphones and tablets, GraphicSpeak reports. Mr. Lu joined Samsung’s GPU unit last September in the role of its Vice President, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The upcoming GPU whose first prototype is said to have already been manufactured in late 2017 reportedly uses an entirely new architecture focused at striking the perfect balance between computational prowess and energy efficiency, with the design supposedly being so promising that it could even be an attractive options for applications beyond mobile devices, according to one analyst briefed on the technology. It’s still unclear when Samsung may be ready to move into flow production, though its new GPU architecture is first likely to be tested with low-end devices before the company considers bringing it to its more expensive product portfolio, according to one report from June.
For the time being, Samsung’s 2015 deal with ARM still stands and should continue resulting in mid-range and high-end Exynos-series chips equipped with the semiconductor firm’s Mali GPUs. The upcoming Galaxy S10 lineup that’s set to launch in early 2019 is widely expected to feature the new Mali-G76 GPU built on the 7nm process node from TSMC, or at least its international models will, whereas the U.S. ones should continue using Qualcomm-made chips with Adreno GPUs. Once Samsung is ready to mass-produce its own graphics silicon, the company is most likely to implement it into its own SoCs but it still hasn’t decided whether it will license the technology to third parties, industry sources claim. In theory, a high-end implementation of the new GPU architecture could put Samsung on par with Apple in terms of graphics rendering performance, according to the latest report.