Samsung has outlined its schedule to produce 2-nanometer (nm) chips as the competition between global foundries intensifies.
The South Korean tech giant on Wednesday said during Samsung Foundry Forum 2023 that it plans to manufacture 2nm chips for mobile applications in 2025; those for high-performance computing (HPC) in 2026 and those for automobiles in 2027.
Samsung also unveiled the performance of its 2nm chips, saying they will have a 12% increased performance compared to 3nm. The chips will also have 25% more power efficiency and take of 5% less area, the tech giant noted.
The company isn’t the only one that announced that they plan to offer 2nm chip production.
TSMC, the world’s largest contract chip manufacturer, is also planning to launch 2nm chips in 2025.
Intel and Japan’s Rapidus are also planning to offer 2nm chip production though they have not publicized their schedules like TSMC and Samsung.
All these chip makers are planning to start applying the gate-all-around (GAA) process starting with their 2nm chips and the one that successfully applies the technology and has stable yield will have an edge in the market.
Samsung has already applied GAA in 3nm but TSMC is also expected to follow suit in 2nm.
Intel calls its GAA technology RibbonFET and is expected to apply it 2nm.
In April, Samsung’s co-CEO and chip boss Kyung Kye-hyun, during a lecture at a college in South Korea, said that Samsung was behind TSMC by one to two years in foundry technology.
However, Kyung also said that when TSMC and Samsung enter the competition for 2nm, this will provide Samsung with an opportunity to leap past its larger rival.
