Samsung Aiming To Release 10 nm chips Way Before TSMC To Dominate Client List

Omar Sohail

Currently, Samsung’s only nemesis in the 10 nm FinFET race happens to be TSMC and right now, the South Korean tech giant is looking pretty nervous at the fact that its Taiwanese rival will be testing mass production of 10 nm FinFET chips from next year. Samsung followed the approach of skipping from 20 nm and jumping on to 14 nm FinFET chips, and it ended up working really well in its favor because it was successfully able to secure orders from both Apple and Qualcomm. Similar to Samsung, TSMC has also jumped from 14 nm FinFET and took a direct pass on to the 10 nm FinFET bus.

TSMC To Commence Risk Production Of 10 nm FinFET During Q2, 2016; What Is Samsung Planning?

According to media reports hailing from Korea, TSMC will start risk production in its 10 nm FinFET processing lines during Q2, 2016. The firm plans on commencing actual producing during the second half of 2016 and in the process, plans on snaring away lucrative customers like Apple and Qualcomm away from Samsung.

In pure terminological understanding, risk production is the final phase of testing, and is the stepping stone to raise the yield rates for full scale mass production. System semiconductors can take much longer as compared to memory semiconductors because they also have to fit in within the quality parameters of the remainder of the components such as GPUs and modems. With these 10 nm FinFET chips, application processors will definitely see their power consumption drop by 40 percent, with processor frequencies increasing by as much as 20 percent.

According to the source, it is TSMC that possesses the higher probability to take mass production orders for Apple and Qualcomm than Samsung. This is because the firm has already invested $1 billion USD in 10 nm foundries. While Samsung announced in April that its 10 nm FinFET foundry is possible from the end of 2016, the company will definitely be looking to expedite the completion process. Apple and Qualcomm have yet to release their SoCs in smartphones, which will give a nice cash upgrade to Samsung.

However, Samsung has not hinted on how it is going to speed up its production date. The company did unveil a 12 inch wafer which will be used in its 10 nm process in May, so as far as things go we are expecting the firm to strike back hard at its rival. Will Samsung be left behind by TSMC in the 10 nm FinFET race or will the South Korean giant find a way to buzz past its biggest adversary? Let us know your thoughts.

 

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