Samsung and TSMC competing to get 10nm chips into the market

The semiconductor sector is a lucrative business for companies and two companies - Samsung and TSMC - are racing against each other to gain a competitive edge and get more business.

According to Business Korea, Samsung is at risk of being overtaken by TSMC in manufacturing chips on a 10-nanometer (nm) process. Citing media reports in Taiwan, Business Korea claims that TSMC will begin risk production in its 10nm processing lines in Q2 2016 and mass production is expected to start as early as the second half of 2016. 

If TSMC can stabilize the 10nm process, it would be in time to secure a contract with Apple to manufacture the next generation A10 chipset. TSMC is determined to leap ahead of the competition by investing US$1 billion to perfect its 10nm process after losing big customers to Samsung in the 14nm process technology race.

9to5Mac reported in December 2014 that Apple has turned to Samsung to manufacture the A9 chipset after the Korean company skipped the 20nm process. Re/code also stated that Samsung won the contract from TSMC to help Qualcomm manufacture its Snapdragon 820 processor.

At the moment, TSMC is deemed to be a step ahead of Samsung by employing the same playbook while Samsung is planning to focus on expanding the market for its 14nm process technology. The Korean company is only scheduled to begin 10nm process from the end of 2016.

Whether Samsung will accelerate plans for the 10nm process node remains to be seen. What we can confirm now is that 10nm chips can potentially provide up 20% increase in clock rates of application processors and up to 40% reduction in power consumption.

Source: Business Korea via PhoneArena

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