Microsoft and AMD together for the processor of the next Surface Pro X?

According to rumors from South Korea , the next Surface Pro X may have a SoC result of the collaboration between Microsoft and AMD . After the SQ1 and SQ2 chips made in collaboration with Qualcomm, Microsoft would have decided to knock on AMD’s door to create an ARM SoC with integrated GPU architecture based AMD RDNA 2 .

SoC rumored to be core based Cortex X1 , while the GPU would have 8 Compute Unit which would allow it to offer lower performance than NVIDIA’s GTX 1050 but higher than what Qualcomm can offer with Adreno solutions. As for 5G connectivity, it would not be integrated but separate and provided by a Samsung modem.

Do not forget that AMD has been working with Samsung for some time on new processor Exynos equipped with GPU RDNA 2 that perhaps we will see on board the Galaxy S22 and in other devices. The South Korean company’s SoC would be based on a mix of ARM Cortex X1, X2 (one) and A78 cores for a total of 8 cores and would have an RDNA 2 GPU with 6 Compute Units.

The chip from Microsoft and AMD, according to the indiscretion, should have been made by Samsung at 5 nanometers, but the poor yields would have forced to divert orders to TSMC and its similar production process. The consequent delay related to this step would be at the root of the absence of a refurbished Surface Pro X this year.

AMD recently said ready to work on ARM architecture in any form, combining it with their IPs or in other ways: to ask for its entry on the ARM scene would have been its own partners, recognizing the capabilities of its semi-custom division, so seeing it involved in other ARM projects in addition to the one with Samsung should not be surprising.