• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Samsung is building a GPU

Kaapstad

Kaapstad

Kaapstad

Man of Honour
Joined
21 May 2012
Posts
31,943
Location
Dalek flagship
No more licensing


Samsung is building a GPU and this has been going on for a while. We hear that the company has been trying for a while and that it managed to hire some people who used to work in distinguished companies such as Nvidia, AMD, Intel and others.

This does not come as a surprise, as poaching and head hunting happens all the time. Companies are always trying to hire talent as they can add to the value of state-of-the-art products. Samsung knows the importance of graphics APIs and GPUs and this is why it is trying to make it in house. So far the company is not ready to announce anything and it is still trying hard to make something that counts.

We have confirmation from several Silicon Valley based companies and insiders that Samsung's GPU development has been going for a few years. Bear in mind that you need at least two years to design a chip, and if this is the first time you are doing it, you probably need more.

It is hard to get things right at the first try and some observers with extensive knowledge of the GPU still remember that Nvidia’s first chip, the NV1, wasn’t the best thing around. The second Riva 128 was better and then the third generation Riva TNT was a quite good one.

The same happened to ATI in the early days as well as most other manufacturers including 3DFX, Matrox, S3 and Intel to name a few. We don’t think that Samsung will become instantly successful, but if it would the success could give Samsung the advantage that Apple currently has. It will be interesting to find out if Apple is trying to make a GPU as it did a great job with its custom SoCs. We do know for a fact that making a good GPU or even graphics API is really demanding and this is why you only have a handful companies doing them.
Click to expand...

http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/35744-samsung-is-building-a-gpu
 
Doubt they'd try and develop their own API unless they are going into a completely new/different market to current mainstream ones.

Don't think it will be so hard for them to get it right first time as it would have been in the past as they can draw much more on the work of people who have already broken that ground the first time - especially as there is a ton of information openly out there about architectures like mali and kepler, etc.

EDIT: Conspiracy? did they push apple aside to gum up TSMC while they ramp up volume of their own next gen GPU and the competition can't ? :P (this is tongue in cheek).
 
Well I didn't see that coming, although it does make perfect sense.

Good luck to them I guess, more competition is always good.
 
They would probably release a few tasty looking cards too- considering it is Samsung.

Although I have a feeling they are probably working towards mobile/SOC gpu's before anything high-power. Am I right?
 
Quite possibly since Samsung make serious cash from mobile. Tbh I've no idea on the market for discreet gpus and whether it can support another player but then again Samsung are an odd company in that they just decide to do things sometimes..
 
dangel said:
Quite possibly since Samsung make serious cash from mobile. Tbh I've no idea on the market for discreet gpus and whether it can support another player but then again Samsung are an odd company in that they just decide to do things sometimes..
Click to expand...

Might just be "shots across the bows" due to some of the legal stuff nVidia have been playing with them recently.
 
Samsung imho make some of the best TV's, best phones, best memory cards and best SSD's. Would love it is they started making GPU's no doubt they would be up there with the best as well.
 
I can imagine them making a good product, but I cant see them targeting the enthusiast market or even discrete GPU market to start with.
 
Tute said:
Is it wrong that I'd quite like to see Intel have a stab at a proper gaming card?
Click to expand...
As interesting as it might seem, wouldn't it be risking the probability of they would might reduce performance of Nvidia and AMD cards on their platform in some way?

While it is the undisputed king of performance for gaming CPU at the moment, the company itself is hardly a saint, and have pulled their fair shares of dirty tricks in the pass...
 
Jokester said:
Don't believe this will be for discrete desktop graphics, it'll be for mobile phones.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same things myself, this is for SoC Mobile devices.

I would love it if Samsung entered the enfusiast Descrete GPU market but i doubt that is going to happen.
 
Rroff said:
Yes, Intel have entirely the wrong mindset as a company to make a great gaming GPU.
Click to expand...

I can't see them going for the very top end, but they might be able to put together a mid range GPU with decent punch and low power usage.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom