Samsung renews GPU architecture agreement with AMD

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More Exynos processors with AMD RDNA graphics

AMD and Samsung have announced they will extend the GPU licensing agreement.



The first agreement signed by both companies in 2019 has now ended. Nevertheless, Samsung and AMD believe that there is still room for RDNA graphics in the mobile space, which is why they announced the extension of said IP licensing agreement for an undisclosed period of time.

The companies worked together to bring AMD’s first mobile GPU called Xclipse 920, which was part of the Exynos 2200 processor. The hype was quickly overshadowed by rather underwhelming performance compared to competing architectures such as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Gen1. The fact that the Galaxy S23 series that launched 2 months ago now exclusively uses Snapdragon Gen2 SoC, has not put much hope for AMD in the flagship mobile race.

However, the extension of the agreement could suggest that both companies believe that there is still room for RDNA GPU architecture in mobile GPU space.

The RDNA2, which was released in 2022 with the Xclipse SoC brought hardware accelerated ray tracing and variable rate shading to mobile devices, but it is still years before some of these technologies make a difference in mobile product. Meanwhile, AMD is now focusing on their RDNA3 GPU architecture which is even more advanced and power efficient than RDNA2.

AMD has successfully captured custom APU market, with partnerships with Sony, Microsoft, Tesla, and companies that make ultra low-power devices, such as Valve’s Steam Deck or the upcoming ASUS handheld console. Mobile graphics require even better efficiency and more innovation, but this is something AMD is now excelling at.

« press release »

Samsung Electronics and AMD Extend Strategic IP Licensing Agreement to Bring AMD Radeon™ Graphics to Future Mobile Platforms

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — April 5, 2023 — Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, and AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced they have signed a multi-year agreement extension to bring multiple generations of high-performance, ultra-low-power AMD Radeon graphics solutions to an expanded portfolio of Samsung Exynos SoCs. Through the licensing extension, Samsung will bring console-level graphics quality and optimized power consumption to more mobile devices, offering an incredibly immersive and long-lasting gaming experience.

“Together with AMD, Samsung has been revolutionizing mobile graphics, including our recent collaboration that brought ray tracing capability to mobile processors for the first time in the industry,” said Seogjun Lee, executive vice president of Application Processor (AP) Development at Samsung Electronics.

“Drawing on our technological know-how in designing ultra-low-power solutions, we will continue to drive ongoing innovation in the mobile graphics space.”

“We are excited Samsung selected multiple generations of our leadership high-performance Radeon graphics to advance the next generation of Samsung Exynos solutions,” said David Wang, senior vice president of the Radeon Technologies Group at AMD. “The extension of our work with Samsung is a testament to our strong technology partnership and commitment to bring the best experiences possible to mobile users.”

Samsung and AMD first announced their partnership to license AMD RDNA™ graphics architecture in 2019, leading to the co-development of Samsung Xclipse, a mobile graphics processing unit (GPU) based on the AMD RDNA 2 architecture in 2022. Xclipse was the industry’s first mobile GPU with hardware-accelerated ray-tracing and variable rate shading features for console-like gameplay on mobile devices.
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