Samsung Foundry has been chasing TSMC in the chip manufacturing segment for quite a few years, but it hasn’t been able to defeat its rival. Last year, the South Korean firm revealed that it would start making 3nm chips in mid-2022 and 5nm chips in 2025. Now, TSMC has announced its production schedule for 3nm and 2nm chips.
TSMC’s 3nm chips are coming in 2023 but lack GAA tech
The world’s biggest contract chip-making firm, TSMC, revealed that it would start the high-volume production of its first N3 (3nm class) semiconductor chips in the second half of 2022. Chips based on the new 3nm process will make it to the market sometime in early 2023. The Taiwanese firm is planning to start the production of 2nm chips in 2025.
Moreover, the company will start using the GAA FET (Gate All Around Field-Effect Transistors) technology with its N2 (2nm class) chips. It means that Samsung will beat TSMC in bringing this new technology by implementing it with 3nm chips later this year. GAA FET is expected to bring significant improvements in power efficiency.
TSMC is planning to launch a total of five 3nm class process nodes: N3, N3E (3nm Enhanced), N3P (3nm Performance Enhanced), N3S (3nm Density Enhanced), and N3X (3nm Ultra High Performance). Each new process offers higher performance, higher transistor density, and higher power efficiency.
FinFlex is TSMC’s secret sauce for higher performance, efficiency
All N3 class processes use TSMC’s secret FinFlex technology that helps chip designers place their building blocks precisely for optimized performance and efficiency. Only time will tell which brand’s technology offers higher performance, efficiency, and yield.
Big fabless chip brands, including Apple, AMD, Qualcomm, Nvidia, and MediaTek, could use TSMC’s advanced processes in the coming years. However, some of those clients could also use Samsung’s foundries for some of their chips.
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