By Jon Porter, a reporter with five years of experience covering consumer tech releases, EU tech policy, online platforms, and mechanical keyboards.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 To Be Mass Produced On TSMC’s 3nm N3E Process, Samsung Loses Crucial Opportunity To Secure Qualcomm’s Orders
01.12.2023 - 08:03 / wccftech.com
Samsung has reportedly lost out on a grand opportunity to partner with Qualcomm to mass produce its next flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, to TSMC. The Taiwanese semiconductor giant will utilize its 3nm ‘N3E’ technology next year, with other companies such as MediaTek also expected to take advantage of this manufacturing process.
TSMC is aggressively pushing its 3nm process for 2024, with the pricey N3B node adopted by Apple for its A17 Pro and M3. The manufacturer will switch to the N3E for next year, which should improve both yields and wafer price, making it financially less impactful for Qualcomm to transition to the new technology. According to TrendForce, because of Samsung’s conservative approach to switching to the 3nm process, the Korean giant has lost out on Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 orders.
It was previously rumored that Qualcomm would switch to a dual-sourcing strategy where it would take advantage of both Samsung’s and TSMC’s 3nm technology to mass produce the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. This move would help lower the production costs of the chipset. Unfortunately, those plans did not materialize, leaving Qualcomm with only one supplier. It is also possible that Samsung’s 3nm GAA yields were also too low to formulate any business relationship, with an earlier report stating that to secure orders, the foundry’s yields would have to increase to 70 percent.
There is also the matter of Samsung’s 3nm technology being inferior to TSMC’s, as evidenced by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 launch, where Qualcomm was criticized for not utilizing the Taiwanese firm’s foundry. Fortunately, the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 made the switch, and differences in both performance and power efficiency were astounding. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 continued this trend.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is said to be Qualcomm’s first smartphone SoC to ship with the company’s custom Oryon cores, as the San Diego firm will move away from ARM’s CPU designs in 2024 in pursuit of competing with Apple’s A-series. However, switching to a custom CPU design, along with mass producing the silicon on TSMC’s N3E process, means that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be more expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, thereby forcing manufacturers to make compromises in several key areas to maximize the profits of their flagship smartphones.
News Source: TrendForce
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