Samsung Galaxy S10 to Come With a Dedicated Dual-Core NPU to Offer Pixel-Like Camera Performance: Report

Samsung Galaxy S10 is now rumoured to debut with an Exynos 9820 SoC that will include a dual-core NPU (neural processing unit) to offer an enhanced artificial intelligence (AI) experience. The new chipset is claimed to be based on 7nm process. The presence of the dedicated coprocessor is reported to handle neural network tasks as well as uplift image and video results. It is said that one of the major use cases of the new SoC will be to "enhance the camera" performance of the Galaxy S10. This sounds similar to how the Pixel Visual Core works on Google's Pixel smartphones.

The new high-end Exynos SoC will use the dual-core NPU to deliver an enhanced AI experience, reports ETNews, citing people familiar with the development. The dedicated chip is said to be used to uplift image, video, and speech recognition. This is unlike the coprocessor available on the Exynos 9810-powered Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S9 that was meant to safeguard biometric inputs, including facial, iris, and fingerprint data.

Companies such as Apple and Huawei already brought dedicated coprocessors to their flagships to enable next-generation AI experiences. Similarly, Google has its Pixel Visual Core to offer high-end camera performance on its Pixel models. While Samsung wasn't in the race until now, it is set to take a major step with the reported dual-core NPU on the Galaxy S10.

The dedicated NPU on the next Samsung flagship could help power deep learning for image and speech recognition tasks. The chip will process data and algorithms - without putting any additional burden on the core performance of the new Exynos SoC. An anonymous tipster who posts unannounced details through Twitter account Ice Universe claims that the AI chip will also be used on the Galaxy S10 to enhance its overall camera performance and work with the built-in ISP. We can expect some improvements on the part of bokeh effect and portrait mode over what is available on the existing Galaxy series flagships.

A previous report claimed that the Exynos 9820 SoC will come with Mali-G76 MP18 GPU. The SoC is also said to have eight CPU cores in a DynamIQ architecture - with two Exynos M4 big cores, two Cortex-A75 or Cortex-A76 medium cores, and four Cortex-A55 small cores. The GPU, on the other hand, is reported to include 18 cores - identical to the Mali-G72 GPU available on the Exynos 9810.

Earlier this year, Samsung unveiled the Exynos 9610 SoC with a neural network engine to provide vision and image processing as well as an enhanced face detection. The SoC essentially supports deep learning-based image processing and provide smart depth sensing to enable bokeh and out-focused portraits using a single camera sensor.

We can expect the arrival of the Exynos 9820 SoC along with the dual-core NPU sometime by the end of the year. Meanwhile, it is safe to expect some fresh reports revealing different use cases of the dedicated AI co-processor.