Samsung starts its own production of 3nm chips; what does that mean?

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Samsung has just announced that it has started production of 3 nanometer (nm) chips from a new manufacturing process, which is more efficient than 5 nm chips.

As pointed out by the website The Verge, the announcement demonstrates the South Korean’s efforts to compete with Taiwan’s TSMC, which dominates the chip production market. The start of this production is considered a victory for Samsung, as TSMC will start manufacturing the 3nm chips only in the second half of this year.

On the other hand, as the Bloomberg points out, Samsung still needs to prove its 3nm process is cost-effective before threatening TSMC’s leadership.

As Samsung explains, the new architecture is called “Gate-All-Around” (GAA), and promises to improve “power efficiency by reducing the supply voltage level, while improving performance by increasing current capacity. of the inverter”.

Samsung’s race for the 3nm chip

The dispute to develop processes that make it possible to manufacture chips at nanometer scales is due to the fact that manufacturers can include more components in a surface area of ​​smaller and smaller area. This increases the performance of the chips, as well as making them more economical and efficient, performing tasks with less power and more speed.

Samsung’s new 3nm process, for example, reduces power consumption by 45%, improves performance by 23%, and reduces area by 16% when compared to the 5nm chip. The idea is that in the future, the second-generation 3nm process should reduce power consumption by 50%, improve performance by 30%, and reduce area by 35%.

Samsung says the chip will be used in “high-performance, low-power computing applications,” but it is also expected to make its way to mobile devices.

The manufacturing of the 3nm chips will be done in South Korea. However, production may be expanded to a factory in the United States, but not before 2024. In addition to strong competitiveness, it is worth remembering that companies in the sector still face difficulties due to the global shortage of semiconductors.