Samsung Electronics' "Samsung System LSI Technology Day" is expected to be held in early October in Silicon Valley, USA. Market sources said the event may include and announcement of a collaboration with AMD in the field of system semiconductors, while details of numerous next-generation semiconductor technology visions will also be disclosed.
Various Korean media pointed out that this will be the first time AMD and Samsung announce details of the GPU cooperation between the two companies in Samsung's official event.
According to Korean media ZDNet Korea,and Ddaily, Samsung is expected to make the said announcement on October 5 at Samsung Semiconductor Research Center.
Since 2017, every year in October, Samsung has been hosting "technology day" activities in the Silicon Valley to release memory and system semiconductor technology insights. The event turned virtual during the COVID pandemic and resumed physical activities in 2022. However, since Samsung has changed the name of the 2023 event to "System LSI Technology Day," focusing on the field of system semiconductor technology, it is expected that Samsung may host another event specifically for memory technology in late October or November.
South Korean industry sources said that Samsung memory and system semiconductor customers are different, and that by holding separate technology days, the conglomerate will be able to show more detailed technical advances, targeting different needs. It is expected that the keynote speaker of the System LSI Technology Day in 2023 will be Samsung System LSI Division President John Yong-in Park.
Notably, Martin Ashton, CVP of AMD, will be a guest speaker at the event, possibly introducing details of the GPU technology partnership. In April 2023, Samsung and AMD announced the renewal of a multi-year agreement to bring multiple generations of high-performance, ultra-low-power AMD Radeon graphics solutions into Samsung's diversified Exynos SoC lineup, suggesting that the partnership may extend from the first generation to the second generation of Samsung's Exynos system-on-chip (SoC) lineup. This indicates that the cooperation may extend from mobile APs to automotive semiconductors.
In 2019, Samsung and AMD announced for the first time a "multi-year strategic partnership" agreement under which AMD licensed the RDNA graphics architecture to Samsung's system LSIs. In 2022 they co-developed a GPU based on AMD's RDNA 2 architecture, which is Samsung's "xclipse." It was the industry's first mobile GPU with hardware-accelerated light tracking and variable-speed shading on Samsung's Exynos 2200.
On the other hand, Samsung is said to announce a new vision in the field of system semiconductors, developing sensors to replicate the five human senses, namely touch, taste, smell, hearing, and vision. Based on this, Samsung may also enter the medical semiconductor market and may unveil a medical chip incorporating the latest sensor technology at the Technology Day event.
In addition, Samsung may also announce SoC, panel driver IC (DDI) and power semiconductors, etc., based on the existing products of the new product line, as well as its vision of the future. The industry is also highly anticipating the launch of the new AP Exynos 2400 (tentative). Previously, market rumors suggested Samsung may soon launch Exynos 2400 and plans to start mass production in 4Q23 so that the new chip can be used in the Galaxy S24 series of cell phones, aimed to be launched in 2024.
