AMD and Samsung Announce Strategic Partnership in Ultra Low Power, High Performance Graphics Technologies with RDNA

[Raevenlord]

AMD and Samsung today announced a key strategic partnership in high performance graphics technologies for the mobile space. The agreement means that Samsung will license AMD's Radeon graphics IP in its latest RDNA iteration, no less, for integration on smartphone graphics processing. Let me stress how impressive this can be: that AMD developed a graphics architecture that can scale from a high-performance GPU down to a nimble, fast, power-sipping module for mobile graphics processing.

This is a huge strategic win for AMD, in that more and more products will be infused with their technology. As Lisa Su puts it, the Radeon user base and development ecosystem will be greatly increased with this Samsung integration - as will AMD's revenue, for sure. Perhaps we'll see a "Powered by AMD Radeon" sticker or engraving in our future Samsung smartphones, as we do with Leica partnerships, for example.)





Key terms of the partnership include:

• AMD will license custom graphics IP based on the recently announced, highly-scalable RDNA graphics architecture to Samsung for use in mobile devices, including smartphones, and other products that complement AMD product offerings.
• Samsung will pay AMD technology license fees and royalties.

Company leaders had this to say:

"As we prepare for disruptive changes in technology and discover new opportunities, our partnership with AMD will allow us to bring groundbreaking graphics products and solutions to market for tomorrow's mobile applications," said Inyup Kang, president of Samsung Electronics' S.LSI Business. "We look forward to working with AMD to accelerate innovations in mobile graphics technologies that will help take future mobile computing to the next level."

"Adoption of our Radeon graphics technologies across the PC, game console, cloud and HPC markets has grown significantly and we are thrilled to now partner with industry leader Samsung to accelerate graphics innovation in the mobile market," said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. "This strategic partnership will extend the reach of our high-performance Radeon graphics into the mobile market, significantly expanding the Radeon user base and development ecosystem."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[cucker tarlson]

I avoid gaming laptops like a plague,but gaming smartphones - sounds exciting.

 

[NdMk2o1o]

Amd is getting a lot of fingers in a lot of pies with their gpu division, despite all the nonsense posted on here because they can't beat nvidia in the high end, I'm pretty sure amd are happy with strategic partnerships like this and with Sony and Microsoft and would rather have those than trying to beat nvidia high end gpu, which most of those who complain wouldn't buy it anyway but just want amd to beat the price down for them..

 

[HD64G]

Big news! And it is almost sure that those gpus for the samsung devices will be made in their labs.

 

[B-Real]

Amd is getting a lot of fingers in a lot of pies with their gpu division, despite all the nonsense posted on here because they can't beat nvidia in the high end, I'm pretty sure amd are happy with strategic partnerships like this and with Sony and Microsoft and would rather have those than trying to beat nvidia high end gpu, which most of those who complain wouldn't buy it anyway but just want amd to beat the price down for them..

+1 Wonder how many of even TPU's users have high end GPUs. 5-10% maybe? How much is it in the big world? Maybe 2-3 %.

 

[Casecutter]

RDNA - Arrangement of the individual "nucleotides" (building blocks) that make "Next-Gen" architecture. And Samsung understands the value and how these modular "nucleotides" can be assemble to make a Hummingbird, to an Eagle.

And yes, the first Navi has it roots from paleohistory of GCN, but they've infused/tinkered with the DNA to make something. I'm not sure how much AMD will explain RDNA in detail even with this upcoming release, just let the work speak for it's self. AMD would rather keep RDNA (aka building blocks) not to be fully-perceived before we see the Full-Navi (pure RDNA) is released, while the console purveyors would also want to use that euphoria to boost their upcoming new consoles mid-2020 release.

 

[R-T-B]

Big news! And it is almost sure that those gpus for the samsung devices will be made in their labs.

If by "their labs" you mean Samsung's, yes. This will be a Samsung SOC with AMD licensed tech.

 

[v12dock]

This deal had been 3 years in the making. There was rumor Samsung was reaching out to both Nvidia and AMD to replace Mali with something more powerful in the Exynos chipset.

 

[Vya Domus]

Here is some trivia :

ATI (they were bought by AMD by then) used to have a mobile GPU division that they sold a long time ago to Qualcomm , now, every SoC they make bears the Adreno brand name for their GPU which is an anagram of Radeon. It's funny that now their will be an actual Radeon IP/brand in mobile SoCs which isn't from the original "bloodline" so to speak.

 

[Divide Overflow]

The last thing I want for my PC GPU is to be held back by the lowest common denominator of some flip phone.

 

[Deleted member 158293]

With ultra mobile GPUs, this looks like AMD has completed positioning themselves as THE graphical hub. From own Radeon branded PC parts, to Apple, to Sony, to Microsoft, to ...etc... and now to Samsung.

AMD knows how to make business deals that's for sure.

 

[Fluffmeister]

I keep wondering why Samsung don't just buy them, but knowing AMD, Samsung can license this tech for peanuts anyway.

 

[Xzibit]

Amd is getting a lot of fingers in a lot of pies with their gpu division, despite all the nonsense posted on here because they can't beat nvidia in the high end, I'm pretty sure amd are happy with strategic partnerships like this and with Sony and Microsoft and would rather have those than trying to beat nvidia high end gpu, which most of those who complain wouldn't buy it anyway but just want amd to beat the price down for them..

Nvidia tried their hand in mobile, even went as far as to buy Icera for their modem, which only 1 carrier ever certified it in the US. Aside from the 2 phones Tegra got into, they were replaced by the next cycle with Qualcomm Snapdragon.

 

[Minus Infinity]

This a huge win for AMD, getting your IP into smartphones and probably tablets too is a big revenue boost.

 

[Makaveli]

RDNA - Arrangement of the individual "nucleotides" (building blocks) that make "Next-Gen" architecture. And Samsung understands the value and how these modular "nucleotides" can be assemble to make a Hummingbird, to an Eagle.

And yes, the first Navi has it roots from paleohistory of GCN, but they've infused/tinkered with the DNA to make something. I'm not sure how much AMD will explain RDNA in detail even with this upcoming release, just let the work speak for it's self. AMD would rather keep RDNA (aka building blocks) not to be fully-perceived before we see the Full-Navi (pure RDNA) is released, while the console purveyors would also want to use that euphoria to boost their upcoming new consoles mid-2020 release.

I was reading this and picturing this in my head

 

[chaosmassive]

It's coming back full circle
Adreno was sold to Qualcomm, and finally AMD has graphics IP in smartphone industry once again.

 

[Digital Dreams]

Here is some trivia :

ATI (they were bought by AMD by then) used to have a mobile GPU division that they sold a long time ago to Qualcomm , now, every SoC they make bears the Adreno brand name for their GPU which is an anagram of Radeon. It's funny that now their will be an actual Radeon IP/brand in mobile SoCs which isn't from the original "bloodline" so to speak.

Very cool

 

[mtcn77]

I kind of envisioned AMD is going in Microsoft's footsteps. They started with Office, too. What really turned up consistently profitable was '365' and online subscription, such as the cloud computing. AMD is luckily doing the same sort of trade - if any party has something they want to nibble(Like the 3nm graphene transistor Samsung has got) they draw up a contract. How awesome is that...
PS: Lisa Su is like a celebrity whose autographs people just can't take their hands off. Literally a month after Samsung makes announcement of their new transistor, Lisa Su can already make for arrangements. This next generation of gpus will be sharp.

 

[yeeeeman]

With ultra mobile GPUs, this looks like AMD has completed positioning themselves as THE graphical hub. From own Radeon branded PC parts, to Apple, to Sony, to Microsoft, to ...etc... and now to Samsung.

AMD knows how to make business deals that's for sure.

We have to thank Lisa for all the business AMD has done in the past few years. She is a great blend between engineering and antreprenor. And the future is open licenses, open partnerships and it seems Nvidia and Intel start to understand this and make a few movements in the right direction (see freesync support on Nvidia cards, see usb 3 open soourced royalty free by Intel)

 

[Imsochobo]

We have to thank Lisa for all the business AMD has done in the past few years. She is a great blend between engineering and antreprenor. And the future is open licenses, open partnerships and it seems Nvidia and Intel start to understand this and make a few movements in the right direction (see freesync support on Nvidia cards, see usb 3 open soourced royalty free by Intel)

Intel have long understood this, they're best in class actually so it's not something AMD is better at.

You mean Thunderbolt and not USB too

 

[Arpeegee]

This is interesting news, as much as some of us here abhor mobile gaming it will be the future for the next generation. My kids and nephews all play Fortnite and Minecraft on their phones, it makes sense that the graphics capabilities need to improve to achieve closer parity to other gaming platforms to compete.

Its also a huge win for both companies in that it makes Samsung's Exynos processors more competitive to Qualcomm in the future and AMD having its architecture in the mobile space finally.

 

[kapone32]

time to buy more AMD stock

 

[Fatalfury]

"Ultra lower power" and "High performance graphics" does not sync well with AMD...

 

[Casecutter]

Strange now the leak/rumor is that Samsung 7nm EUV process will be used by Nvidia for the next Ampere GPUs.
It's like as the world turns...

 

[ironcerealbox]

This is a trial run (after 1.5 to 2+ years of R&D) that will start sometime in 2021 or 2022 for Samsung. If it pans out, who knows...the rumors are that the demand is supremely high, with Samsung's lower level execs, to release a console or some sort of legit gaming platform (two friends from college that work for Samsung now; one is working at HQ in Seoul and the other is down here in Austin/Round Rock regional HQ).