Qualcomm Ogah Separate Samsung, Promises To Cooperate Again In The Future Year
JAKARTA - Qualcomm seems to be keeping a collaboration relationship with Samsung, where the two will continue to make a better System on Chip (SoC).
Both of them have made chips under Samsung Foundry, which is considered the world's second-largest semiconductor foundry plant after TSMC.
Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 were created by Samsung Foundry, but both chips face excess heat or overheating and performance downturns.
Due to this problem, Qualcomm handed over the production of Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to TSMC. However, Qualcomm plans to return to Samsung in the future.
Senior Vice President and CMO Qualcomm, Don Maguire told reporters that Qualcomm will maintain cooperative relations with Samsung.
Chances are, San Diego, California, United States (US)-based companies can work again with South Korean companies for 3nm and 2nm semiconductor chips.
When asked if Qualcomm would use a double-foundry strategy, Maguire said, Qualcomm is too big to use a single foundation," he said.
"The multi-foundry strategy is much easier in terms of supply, but also profitable in terms of price and scale competitiveness. In particular, multi-foundry strategies are more suitable for expansion into business areas other than smartphones," he added.
For its 3nm chip, Qualcomm is said to have chosen TSMC as its main partner, but some of it can also be produced by Samsung Foundry, especially if the company does not face yield and performance problems.
Samsung plans to start mass production of 2nm chips by 2025. The technology applied to the upcoming fabrication process will help reduce excess heat, thus making processors using them more power efficient.
It is claimed, this collaboration with Samsung will produce processors other than cellular, it could be for laptops, autonomous vehicles and more.
Launching Sammobile, Friday, November 18, unlike previous generation nodes, Samsung Foundry has implemented the GAA technology for 3nm process nodes, and is expected to provide significant advantages in terms of power efficiency.
TSMC currently uses FinFET structures for 4nm and 3nm chips and is expected to carry GAA technology with 2nm nodes.