Samsung, a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate, announced on Tuesday, Oct. 4, that it intends to compete with semiconductor giant TSMC by producing the most advanced chips in the next five years. This follows reports that a market race between the two major East Asian manufacturers is tightening up.
According to CNBC, Samsung recently revealed a roadmap scheme that details its semiconductor manufacturing plans, which includes the production of chips with 2-nanometer processing capabilities beginning in 2025.
Furthermore, the tech juggernaut aims to begin making semiconductor units that feature a 1.4-nanometer process in seven years. The aforementioned chip specifications are considered to be the most advanced yet to be announced to hit production.
Nanometer Chips: In the Know
If you are into the latest gadgets like smartphones, laptops, and gaming consoles, you may have already heard of nanometers (nm) when reading the technical specifications of your device, specifically its chip description section.
ASML informs us that these chips, or semiconductors, function as miniature electrical switches that can turn a current on or off and serve as the device's brain. Nanometers are used to measure chip features. One nanometer equals one billionth of a meter or one-millionth of a millimeter.
The same report tells us that the term "nanometer technology" in today's chipsets refers to advancements in the production process rather than the size of the silicon chip itself. It is now more of a market buzzword.
As per Pocket Now, these transistors are very small in size and can have millions or billions of transistors on a single chip. On chips, the term nanometer refers to the size of each individual transistor. In the industry, it is frequently referred to as a "process node" or a "technology node."
Simply put, smaller transistors result in more powerful and efficient chips. This means that devices running on these high-end chips will perform faster and more efficiently than devices with smaller nanometer reductions.
Samsung's 2025 Chip Production Roadmap
According to Business Standard, Samsung's chip contract-manufacturing unit, known as the foundry, aims to triple its revenue by 2021 from its current level, as Senior Vice President Moonsoo Kang stated at a press conference in California on Monday, Oct. 4.
The company will need to make numerous technological breakthroughs as well as further inroads into the US market for outsourced chips in order to accomplish the feat, says the report.
The chip race between Samsung and TSMC began in 2014 when Apple decided to use only the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to produce the Apple A8 chip.
However, Samsung completed the upcoming 3nm chips development earlier this year, ahead of TSMC. This modern chip would power modern technological devices such as smartphones, tablets, computers, and other soon-to-be-released innovations. It is significantly smaller than current industry chips, thanks to a size reduction from 5nm to 3nm.
A Bloomberg report informs us that Samsung shares rose as much as 4.1% in Seoul on Tuesday after falling nearly a third this year due to rising costs and a decline in the memory market.
