Samsung on Tuesday, January 18, announced a new flagship mobile processor that brings ray-tracing capabilities to smartphones and mobile devices. 

The Exynos 2200 features a Samsung Xclipse graphics processing unit (GPU) that is based on CPU and GPU giant AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture – the same architecture found in the PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox Series X, and flagship AMD GPUs. To be clear, the mobile chip isn’t expected to match the computational capabilities of the dedicated gaming devices. 

Still, the Xclipse GPU will be the first to bring hardware-accelerated ray-tracing to mobile devices. Ray-tracing has been the most hyped graphical feature for gaming in recent years, simulating how light behaves more realistically than all previous techniques or technologies before it. It is known to be highly resource-intensive, requiring high-end PC GPUs and is found on current-generation consoles PS5 and Xbox Series X. 

Hyping the component, Samsung in its press release said that the GPU is named as such because “Like an eclipse, the Xclipse GPU will bring an end to the old era of mobile gaming and mark the start of an exciting new chapter.” In a promotional video, it said that it will bring “console-quality” graphics to mobile.

The Exynos 2200 is built on the current state-of-the-art 4-nanometer process, like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which Samsung will be manufacturing as well.

It has eight cores comprised of the Arm Cortex-X2 flagship core, three Cortex-A710 big cores, and four Cortex-A510 little cores. 

“The Exynos 2200 will redefine mobile gaming experience, aided by enhanced graphics and AI performance,” said Yongin Park, President of System LSI Business at Samsung Electronics.

David Wang, AMD’s senior vice president of Radeon Technologies Group, said that the Xclipse GPU is the “first result of multiple planned generations of AMD RDNA graphics in Exynos SoCs.” 

The Exynos 2200 will also have a neural processing unit, used for machine learning and AI capabilities, that’s twice as powerful as its predecessor, Samsung said. Samsung also touted the chip’s imaging capabilities, allowing support for resolutions up 200 megapixels, and better AI-powered image refinements.

The chip is expected to power Samsung’s next flagship phone, the Galaxy S22. – Rappler.com