Samsung will reportedly release an Exynos laptop with AMD graphics this year

[Lightwreather]

Summary

 In 2019, Samsung started working with AMD on a mobile GPU. Last month, the company provided an update on the partnership, saying the component would make its way into its next “flagship product.” At the time, the assumption was Samsung would integrate the GPU into a phone like the next Galaxy Fold. Now we have a report that suggests the company will do something far more interesting with the technology.

 

Quotes

Quote

According to ZDNet Korea, Samsung will release a Windows 10 laptop later this year that will feature an Exynos chipset that integrates an AMD GPU. The company will reportedly announce the computer in the second half of the year, sometime after the release of the next Galaxy Note — which Samsung is said to be still working on despite earlier rumors of its demise.

Samsung has dabbled with ARM-based Windows 10 laptops in the past, but so far it has always relied on Qualcomm to supply the processors for those computers. The chipmaker effectively has a monopoly on the market at the moment, but that hasn’t translated into Windows ARM taking off. Part of that can be attributed to Microsoft’s implementation. App compatibility has improved significantly in recent years, but you’ll still find the odd program that won’t run smoothly on your ARM-based machine. That’s not to say those problems will go away if Samsung were to build a computer with its own silicon, but the alternative is allowing Apple to establish a dominant lead with its M1 Macs.

 

 

My thoughts

This is a rather interesting story, I'm all for new competition in the tech space and I wish samsung all the best. I think ARM -based laptops are going to be pretty common soon into the future, however, I believe that ARM will not be able to phase out x86 but will rather co-exist with it (rather wishful thinking, I Know) but either the more competent competition, the better and the more innovation there will be (case in point: AMD v Intel). This will be one of thosoe thing to look out for, but as for me, I'd still probably get an apple silicon mac (the 14in one, whenever that comes out).

Sources

https://www.engadget.com/samsung-exynos-amd-2200-windows-10-171058288.html

https://zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=20210224162744 (note: I cannot speak, or read or otherwise understand korean)

[Applefreak]

12 minutes ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Summary

 In 2019, Samsung started working with AMD on a mobile GPU. Last month, the company provided an update on the partnership, saying the component would make its way into its next “flagship product.” At the time, the assumption was Samsung would integrate the GPU into a phone like the next Galaxy Fold. Now we have a report that suggests the company will do something far more interesting with the technology.

 

Quotes

 

My thoughts

This is a rather interesting story, I'm all for new competition in the tech space and I wish samsung all the best. I think ARM -based laptops are going to be pretty common soon into the future, however, I believe that ARM will not be able to phase out x86 but will rather co-exist with it (rather wishful thinking, I Know) but either the more competent competition, the better and the more innovation there will be (case in point: AMD v Intel). This will be one of thosoe thing to look out for, but as for me, I'd still probably get an apple silicon mac (the 14in one, whenever that comes out).

Sources

https://www.engadget.com/samsung-exynos-amd-2200-windows-10-171058288.html

https://zdnet.co.kr/view/?no=20210224162744 (note: I cannot speak, or read or otherwise understand korean)

Samsung has been making and selling ARM Chromebook variants for quite some time now. They are more common than you might think. I would have liked to see the Intel hybrid laptop that had ARM co-processors to allow the seamless integration of Android and Windows kernels. That project has been scrapped or put on hold AFAIK. A mix would have been a real chance to create a powerful laptop that has amazing battery life on the go.

I do think that having AMD's new mobile graphics in ARM chips is a step in the right direction.

From the specs that leaked a while ago, I would expect those chips to improve image rendering on phones as well. Something the new flagship phones would benefit from. Sadly those won't be ready for market anytime soon.

As for laptops in general, I am someone who relies on them for work, mostly on the go. If all my work applications were to run on those laptops, and if they had Trackpoints (aka nipples) like on the Lenovo ThinkPad line, I would buy them without a doubt.

[Archer42]

Until arm is better standardized and supported - not interested.

 

I can run whatever junk i want on x86, on arm all the stuff like boot process, drivers etc is different for each cpu/manufacturer, so given system will only work with provided os and may be some hacky half-functional community linux distro.

 

While that's the case what's the reason to choose it over average x86 laptop? It is clearly inferior in a sense that it is limited to whatever OS manufacturer installs and will become useless once manufacturer decides to stop updating it. But what the benefits are?

[Doobeedoo]

Hm cool, maybe something like M1 competition in the future, we'll see.

[PlayerLorenzo]

AMD would have to write Radeon software for the Exynos architecture. Expect this coming much more later than expected.

[Arika]

On 2/25/2021 at 6:12 AM, Archer42 said:

Until arm is better standardized and supported - not interested.

 

I can run whatever junk i want on x86, on arm all the stuff like boot process, drivers etc is different for each cpu/manufacturer, so given system will only work with provided os and may be some hacky half-functional community linux distro.

 

While that's the case what's the reason to choose it over average x86 laptop? It is clearly inferior in a sense that it is limited to whatever OS manufacturer installs and will become useless once manufacturer decides to stop updating it. But what the benefits are?

You say you want ARM to be more standardized and supported, but then ask "why does this exist? why should anyone buy it?"

 

Windows on ARM (which is what OS Samsung are releasing this under) is still in it's infancy and unless more devices like this exist and show that there is a market for it, then it will always be a side project for Microsoft. Devices like these need to exist to create a push for MS to really improve WoA.

 

[Archer42]

2 hours ago, Arika S said:

You say you want ARM to be more standardized and supported, but then ask "why does this exist? why should anyone buy it?"

 

Windows on ARM (which is what OS Samsung are releasing this under) is still in it's infancy and unless more devices like this exist and show that there is a market for it, then it will always be a side project for Microsoft. Devices like these need to exist to create a push for MS to really improve WoA.

Yep, because ive seen windows mobile, windows rt, windows phone... microsoft's attempts at this are decades old and so far nothing good ever came out of them.

 

What i expect is finished and usable product before i pay for it, not something that is clearly inferior that i buy because i like the idea. Microsoft definitely does not have issues with money to make things happen if they wanted to without me wasting money on something which will become obsolete and unusable in a year...

 

That said... i was not really talking about OS, Microsoft or Windows. I was talking about hardware. And what i want is a way to install any generic OS without any support from manufacturer. Like it is possible on x86. For this certain things must happen on arm, like proper uefi for example, which have nothing to do with microsoft and their ever failing attempts at alternative architectures...

 

The reason for this is - i've played around with different arm dev boards enough. It's complete mess. Looking just at how boot process works - it is different for every soc/cpu and every manufacturer, device initialization and stuff, everything has to de customized specifically for given soc/board configuration for even basic things to work. For this reason this boards are borderline-useless and a pain to use. Compared to any x86 hardware it feels like going back into early 90-s or even worse, and not in terms of performance - in terms of standardization and compatibility we got so used to on x86.

[kvuj]

On 2/26/2021 at 12:37 PM, Archer42 said:

For this certain things must happen on arm, like proper uefi for example...

Eww, I hope not. UEFI is a mess that I hope we avoid with ARM. Why not use something minuscule such as petitboot used with POWER CPUs. Ok I might be wishing for a bit too much haha. Also I'm not sure W10 will accept Linux kexec as a valid boot method.

 

I'm 100% with you on the standardization front, but you have to be careful though. There are server / desktop running ARM with professional grade software support (like this 32 core Ampere one). These can boot pretty much any OS supporting UEFI.

 

You'll be paying a premium of course, but let's not mix Qualcomm's / Samsung's problems with ARM.

[Kisai]

On 2/24/2021 at 10:43 AM, J-from-Nucleon said:

 

 

My thoughts

This is a rather interesting story, I'm all for new competition in the tech space and I wish samsung all the best. I think ARM -based laptops are going to be pretty common soon into the future, however, I believe that ARM will not be able to phase out x86 but will rather co-exist with it (rather wishful thinking, I Know) but either the more competent competition, the better and the more innovation there will be (case in point: AMD v Intel). This will be one of thosoe thing to look out for, but as for me, I'd still probably get an apple silicon mac (the 14in one, whenever that comes out).

 

I definitely question Samsung's sanity sometimes. If anyone was going to make an ARM Windows laptop it would be Samsung, but at the same time, Samsung is not Apple. They like to pretend they are, but one of the things that are unique to Korean tech is that they get paid for stuffing features (regardless if they work or not) into their gadgets.

 

To which the question has to be asked ... "who wanted this?"

 

Nobody. It's going to result in a repeat of the Windows RT. If Samsung really wants to aim for eating Apple's lunch here, that ARM chip needs to have h264/h265/h266/vp8/vp9/av1 in it to be future-proof-ish for video, and needs to pull off some ARKit class functionality on Windows with a stereo 4K camera/depth camera. So far, no laptop even does this because laptop OEM's keep putting rubbish 720p in laptops, and nothing is standard on a desktop.

 

No, I expect this ARM laptop to just be more "budget netbook" type of performance that it's only attractive trait being it's battery life.

[descendency]

Part of me hopes this works, because if we can get machines that can do basic tasks better than current intel laptops (web browsing, document editing, etc), then it will be great for a lot of people. It doesn't need to game at 4k144+. It just needs to check certain boxes. 

 

That said, I 100% guarantee you that a basic core i3 laptop will be better (sans some battery life and heat). 

[DelavorexIndustries]

On 2/24/2021 at 8:12 PM, Archer42 said:

Until arm is better standardized and supported - not interested.

 

I can run whatever junk i want on x86, on arm all the stuff like boot process, drivers etc is different for each cpu/manufacturer, so given system will only work with provided os and may be some hacky half-functional community linux distro.

 

While that's the case what's the reason to choose it over average x86 laptop? It is clearly inferior in a sense that it is limited to whatever OS manufacturer installs and will become useless once manufacturer decides to stop updating it. But what the benefits are?

Can you explain arm to me?

[Nena Trinity]

ARM + Radeon = good gaming PC?

[Lightwreather]

6 hours ago, DelavorexIndustries said:

Can you explain arm to me?

This video should help you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbkFfo7w3II&list=PLn3399nFJ6-ddJS1Dn1GZZ-igKY9FatIk&index=9

[Fnige]

13 hours ago, kvuj said:

(like this 32 core Ampere one)

I see that fucking case. I know what it is

[DelavorexIndustries]

4 hours ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

This video should help you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbkFfo7w3II&list=PLn3399nFJ6-ddJS1Dn1GZZ-igKY9FatIk&index=9

Thanks