AMD Returns To Smartphone Graphics (theregister.com) 13
AMD's GPU technology is returning to mobile handsets with Samsung's Exynos 2200 system-on-chip, which was announced on Tuesday. The Register reports: The Exynos 2200 processor, fabricated using a 4nm process, has Armv9 CPU cores and the oddly named Xclipse GPU, which is an adaptation of AMD's RDNA 2 mainstream GPU architecture. AMD was in the handheld GPU market until 2009, when it sold the Imageon GPU and handheld business for $65m to Qualcomm, which turned the tech into the Adreno GPU for its Snapdragon family. AMD's Imageon processors were used in devices from Motorola, Panasonic, Palm and others making Windows Mobile handsets. AMD's now returning to a more competitive mobile graphics market with Apple, Arm and Imagination also possessing homegrown smartphone GPUs.
Samsung and AMD announced the companies were working together on graphics in June last year. With Exynos 2200, Samsung has moved on from Arm's Mali GPU family, which was in the predecessor Exynos 2100 used in the current flagship Galaxy smartphones. Samsung says the power-optimized GPU has hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which simulates lighting effects and other features to make gaming a better experience. [...] The Exynos 2200 has an image signal processor that can apparently handle 200-megapixel pictures and record 8K video. Other features include HDR10+ support, and 4K video decoding at up to 240fps or 8K decoding at up to 60fps. It supports display refresh rates of up to 144Hz.
The eight-core CPU cluster features a balance of high-performing and power-efficient cores. It has one Arm Cortex-X2 flagship core, three Cortex-A710 big cores and four Cortex-A510s, which is in the same ballpark as Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Mediatek's Dimensity 9000, which are the only other chips using Arm's Armv9 cores and are made using a 4nm process. An integrated 5G modem supports both sub-6GHz and millimeter wave bands, and a feature to mix LTE and 5G signals speeds up data transfers to 10Gbps. The chip also has a security processor and an AI engine that is said to be two times faster than its predecessor in the Exynos 2100.
Samsung and AMD announced the companies were working together on graphics in June last year. With Exynos 2200, Samsung has moved on from Arm's Mali GPU family, which was in the predecessor Exynos 2100 used in the current flagship Galaxy smartphones. Samsung says the power-optimized GPU has hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which simulates lighting effects and other features to make gaming a better experience. [...] The Exynos 2200 has an image signal processor that can apparently handle 200-megapixel pictures and record 8K video. Other features include HDR10+ support, and 4K video decoding at up to 240fps or 8K decoding at up to 60fps. It supports display refresh rates of up to 144Hz.
The eight-core CPU cluster features a balance of high-performing and power-efficient cores. It has one Arm Cortex-X2 flagship core, three Cortex-A710 big cores and four Cortex-A510s, which is in the same ballpark as Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Mediatek's Dimensity 9000, which are the only other chips using Arm's Armv9 cores and are made using a 4nm process. An integrated 5G modem supports both sub-6GHz and millimeter wave bands, and a feature to mix LTE and 5G signals speeds up data transfers to 10Gbps. The chip also has a security processor and an AI engine that is said to be two times faster than its predecessor in the Exynos 2100.
Xclipse (Score:2)
In case you are wondering, "Xclipse" looks like Yucatan Mayan to me, and, suspecting a female gender, it would be pronounced "Ishclipse".
Re: (Score:2)
Does this mean that the BitBoys are back? (Score:4, Funny)
Here is one for the graybeards out there:
Remember the BitBoys ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Got aquired by ATI but later AMD sold them to Qualcomm.
We should petition AMD to call the new GPU Glaze3D, just for old time's sake.
Same old players (Score:1)
Curious what the future reserves for ARM, a nVidia tentatively company. With AMD partnering with Samsung, and with Apple on their own ARM market, it is only time until we see Intel coming into this segment. Assuming they can make a relevant, proper accelerated GPU unit slightly better than their iGPU.
Re: (Score:2)
it is only time until we see Intel coming into this segment. Assuming they can make a relevant, proper accelerated GPU unit slightly better than their iGPU.
That is a large and unwarranted assumption.
Re: (Score:3)
Curious what the future reserves for ARM, a nVidia tentatively company.
That's a bold statement for an acquisition that's under investigation by every single antitrust entity on the planet. Even if the FTC signed off on the deal, I'm putting a shiny quarter on the UK's CMA not being okay with an American company dominating an entire platform that's been in their borders for some time now. Nor the Japanese Fair Trade Committee signing off on something SoftBank would be hurting to lose. Not for some pathetic $40B deal. And the EU's agency, yeah they're SOOOO pro-America ownin
Re: (Score:2)
And trust me, I'm no Intel fanboy, but it makes no sense for Intel to shell out a shit ton of money to play catch up when they can offer up a pittance to have something that's nearly as good without the strings that come with ARM's licensing shit.
What strings are those? Intel apparently still owns an ARM architectural license like Apple, AMD, Qualcomm, and Samsung do.
Bitcoin mining on my smartphone (Score:2)
Life doesn't get better than this!
Announced Tuesday? (Score:3)
Samsung has been talking about the Exynos 2200 for some time now, including the fact that it has an AMD iGPU. What we got yesterday appears to be what was meant to be shown at CES (where the Exynos 2200 was a no-show). We got some GB5 and AnTuTu scores. Yay!
(oh and GFXBench Aztec Ruins)
Anyway these tech writers could do a better job of putting things in perspective.
Holy hells (Score:2)