Samsung recently began shipping its first-generation 3nm GAA chips, but regrettably, no smartphone suppliers have reportedly expressed interest in this architecture, continuing to place their orders with TSMC instead. However, things might change for the better in 2024 as a result of the much enhanced second-generation 3nm GAA process, which could attract more successful mobile clients.
As there is currently no evidence mentioning Samsung’s involvement in the development of smartphone SoCs, the first batch of its 3nm GAA chips will be used in cryptocurrency mining hardware. With a new agreement with Qualcomm stipulating that the aforementioned series will only come with Snapdragon chipsets, this also means that Samsung will no longer be working on its Exynos 2300, which was intended for several Galaxy S23 variations.
Losing customers is a loss for Samsung, and given that its 4nm process was plagued with issues like low yields, it is no surprise that several smartphone customers, including Qualcomm, have chosen to give orders to TSMC.
Fortunately, all hope is not gone. Even though customers aren’t interested in Samsung’s 3nm GAA technique, Sravan Kundojjala claims that the company’s second-generation method should convince them to reconsider.
After all, Samsung asserts that its second-generation 3nm GAA architecture offers significant advancements over the first iteration, including power consumption reductions of up to 50%, performance increases of 30%, and area reductions of 35%. Although the Korean juggernaut did not reveal statistical differences between its 4nm node, all these advancements are compared to Samsung’s 5nm process, thus 3nm GAA still offers some advancement in several sectors.
If TSMC experiences yield issues with its own 3nm process, Qualcomm may resume its collaboration with Samsung for 3nm GAA chips. This may be the reason Qualcomm allegedly asked its old chip supplier to generate samples on demand so it could determine whether or not this architecture is deserving of placing orders once more. Samsung has only so far shipped a small number of chips, so yield improvements are required before Qualcomm can trust its old partner once more.
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