Samsung is abandoning its custom 'Mongoose' CPU core division in the US

South Korean giant Samsung is shutting down its custom CPU core division. The R&D team based in Austin and San Jose in the US will be shut down and 290 employees from the division will be laid off starting from 31 December.[caption id="attachment_5847421" align="alignnone" width="1280"] The logo of Samsung is seen on a building during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman[/caption]Android Authority confirmed with Samsung about the company’s decision of abandoning its custom CPU core research department. This decision was taken by the company to apparently remain competitive in the market.Samsung used to design its own CPU cores, the custom Mongoose cores, in its Exynos line of SoCs. With this division being shut down, the company will probably license the CPU core design from Arm. This doesn’t mean that the Exynos brand will be discontinued. It’s too early to say whether Samsung will use Arm’s CPU cores directly or create semi-custom cores. The latter approach is what Qualcomm and Huawei have taken for their lineup of chipsets.Samsung phones have sold with different chipsets based on the region. Some have used Exynos while some use Qualcomm. This used to result in performance differences on the same lineup of phone. With the same chipset on the same lineup, say the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S11 series, all the models will offer the same level of performance.