Samsung shuts down custom CPU development project in US

Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest memory chipmaker, has stopped development work on its custom central processor unit (CPU) cores at its R&D centres in the United States, company officials said on Tuesday.

Samsung has notified the Texas Workforce Commission of its decision to lay off about 290 members of the custom CPU core teams in Austin and San Jose as of December 31, the Korean tech company said.

Starting in 2012, the project has produced custom CPU cores for the Exynos series, its own mobile chip brand competing with US chip maker Qualcomm's Snapdragon family, Yonhap news agency reported.

"(The company) decided to restructure the custom CPU development teams to focus on core competitiveness and improve efficiency," a Samsung official said on condition of anonymity.

Samsung is expected to license custom CPU cores from British chip maker ARM, a global leader in processors used in mobile phones and tablet computers.IANS