Samsung collaborates with Arm to offer Cortex-X CPU using GAA process
Samsung said on Tuesday that it will offer Arm Cortex-X CPU that has been optimized to Samsung Foundry's latest gate-all-around (GAA) process node.
This collaboration was the first of more to come between the pair that will enable the development of a "new class of SoCs" with generative AI capabilities, the South Korean tech giant said.
Samsung Foundry is Samsung's contract chip production business unit and GAA is its most advanced process node so far that is used to make the latest chips for its customers. Chip IP firm Arm offers its namesake chip designs and instruction sets that are widely used by chipmakers to make their chips. Cortex-X is the most high-end chip architecture offered by Arm so far and is touted for use not just in smartphones but servers and data centers.
Samsung's announcement means that chipmakers without fabs __ chip production facilities __ which are Samsung Foundry's customers, can have their Cortex-X CPU designed and manufactured more freely through the South Korean tech giant.
Samsung said its collaboration with Arm aims to deliver customers their products in a timely fashion while offering excellence in power, performance, and area (PPA).
The pair opted for design-technology co-optimization for this latest partnership that allowed them to drastically maximize the PPA benefits of Arm's latest design and Samsung's GAA process node, the South Korean tech giant said.
They are also planning to collaborate on 2-nanometer (nm) GAA to offer the node for custom chips aimed at next-generation data center and infrastructure, Samsung said. They also plan to offer "groundbreaking" AI chiplet solutions for generative AI applications in the mobile market down the road, the South Korean tech giant added.
Samsung first commercialized its 3nm GAA process back in 2022 and it is used widely today for processors on flagship smartphones. The tech giant said it plans to start mass production of 2nm chips in 2025, starting with mobile applications.