The development of chips is getting faster and faster, and the speed of mass production of advanced process chips is also getting faster and faster, from 28 nanometers, just a few years, and now it has successfully advanced to 4 nanometers. What does this mean? It means that the advanced process of chips is about to reach the limits of Moore's Law.
Of course, today's global companies in the chip advanced process is still working hard, Samsung, this international all-round enterprise, in the 3-nanometer chip has also made new progress, it is said that Samsung is ready to adopt a new process in the 3-nanometer aspect. So, can Samsung really achieve mass production of 3 nanometers this time? After all, Samsung has been shouting 3 nanometers for many years, but even the shadow has not been seen.
Samsung has now developed such a more advanced 3nm process, so is there any hope of saving Qualcomm that is a bit about to run?
New developments came from Samsung 3 nanometers
According to South Korean media reports, Samsung is preparing to start construction of a 3nm fab in Pyeongtaek City, South Korea, this year, and is currently expected to start construction in June and July, and is also ready to put the corresponding equipment in place. In the process of 3-nanometer chips, Samsung has the appearance of breaking the ship.
Mainland TSMC does indeed make a move towards 3nm chips, but at present, TSMC uses a more traditional FinFET process. And Samsung is not, what is Samsung ready to use this time? Get ready to use the new craft, get ready to be the first to eat crabs. This new process is the GAA transistor process.
This new process is mainly to use the new type of surround gate transistor, through the relevant nanosheet equipment and related technologies for related stacking, the formation of multi-bridge channel FET.
Of course, it is not surprising that Samsung will have such a move, after all, in theory, the chip produced using this new GAA transistor process will indeed be greatly enhanced in overall performance than the traditional FinFET process, specifically.
Chips produced using the new PROCESS of GAA are said to reduce power consumption by about 50% and performance by 35%, at least in theory, because no one has tried it yet, and the chip produced by Samsung with this new process will indeed be superior to TSMC's traditional functional process.
However, if Samsung's 3nm new process chip wants to achieve a 3-nanometer chip that surpasses TSMC's traditional process, then it must first have a big variable. That is, Samsung has been shouting for several years in the 3-nanometer chip, but at present, it has only seen Samsung move its mouth, so this time Samsung is ready to adopt a new process and prepare to build a factory, and this time there is really hope to achieve mass production of 3-nanometer chips?
Can Samsung really achieve mass production of 3 nanometers this time?
First of all, Samsung has invested heavily in the economic development of the chip business
In fact, Samsung is still very hopeful this time to achieve its own use of more advanced new technology, 3-nanometer chip mass production. On November 9, 2020, Samsung set a lofty goal of achieving mass production of 3-nanometer chips in 2022, that is, this year, at that time, according to relevant Samsung executives, Samsung not only set goals, but even formulated an action plan, and is expected to invest $116 billion in chip development.
Such a capital investment is undoubtedly very huge, in such a huge investment, plus now in the 3-nanometer chip, Samsung has been studying for almost two years, in the case of time is not short, the investment is not a lot, want to achieve mass production of 3-nanometer chips this year, in fact, it is not impossible.
Second, Samsung's revenue set a new record
In terms of technology, Samsung has decided to use a new process, therefore, whether Samsung can achieve 3 nanometer mass production should be the main decisive factor in the capital investment, March 1, South Korea's Samsung announced its revenue last year, it is said that last year Samsung achieved the best annual results in terms of revenue, revenue as high as 233 billion US dollars, an increase of 18% year-on-year.
Therefore, today's Samsung is fully capable of continuing to spend money on 3nm chips.
In addition, South Korea's Samsung Group opened an internal self-examination in February this year, mainly to find out where so much money has been spent over the years, and how Samsung's yield rate has not been raised. With Samsung launching this self-inspection, it is still likely that Samsung will find many problems and solve them, which will make Samsung move towards better perfection and development, so now, Samsung may not be unable to achieve mass production of 3nm chips at the moment when the 3-nanometer chip factory is about to land.
In short, this year Samsung to achieve their promise, to achieve the mass production of 3-nanometer chips is still very likely, after the use of more advanced new technologies, is there any hope to save Qualcomm?
Can the more advanced 3nm process save Qualcomm?
As we all know, since Samsung FOUNDRY Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, "gave" Qualcomm Snapdragon a dragon title, Qualcomm has delivered the next generation of chips in time to the stronger TSMC FOUNDRY production. Samsung has undoubtedly lost Qualcomm' big customer, and now, it is difficult to recover Qualcomm's heart for Samsung.
Nowadays, Samsung's yield rate has not actually improved at all, taking Qualcomm's 4-nanometer fire dragon as an example, it is said that the final yield rate is only 35%. At the end of February this year, Samsung could not even look at its own yield rate, and was also suspected of falsifying the yield rate of 5-nanometer chips.
In short, at the moment when Samsung's yield rate has not improved, even if the 3-nanometer chip with better performance is mass-produced, I am afraid that Qualcomm will not be assured to re-hand over the order to Samsung.
summary
Samsung in the 3-nanometer chip mass production again came new news, once again appeared new progress, ready to build a new process, new technology 3-nanometer chip factory, in the future, Samsung's 3-nanometer chip can be successfully landed, Samsung can successfully fulfill its commitments.
Samsung's new process made of 3-nanometer chips, whether it can surpass the 3-nanometer chip corresponding to TSMC as desired, although it is not optimistic, but it is still waiting to see if Samsung will be a new round of mouth cannon this time.