Samsung Electronics became the first chipmaker in the world to mass-produce advanced 3-nanometer microchips, the company said Thursday as it seeks to catch up with Taiwan’s TSMC.
The new chips will be smaller, more powerful and more efficient and will be used in high-performance computing applications before being built into devices like cell phones.
“Compared to the 5nm process, the first-generation 3nm process can reduce power consumption by up to 45%, improve performance by 23%, and reduce area by 16%,” Samsung said in a statement.
The South Korean conglomerate announced a five-year plan to invest 450 trillion won ($356 billion) last month and said it will “advance the mass production of chips based on the 3-nanometer process.”
The vast majority of the world’s most advanced microchips are made by just two companies – Samsung and Taiwan’s TSMC – both of which are working flat out to alleviate a global shortage.
Samsung is the market leader in memory chips but has struggled to catch up with TSMC in the advanced foundry business.
TSMC dominates more than half of the global foundry market with customers like Apple and Qualcomm, while Samsung lags behind with around 16 percent market share, according to TrendForce.
TSMC plans to start volume production of 3-nanometer technology in the second half of this year and entered the development phase of 2-nanometer technology last year, according to the company’s 2021 annual report.
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