Chips can be divided into two parts: research and development and foundry, such asappleOnly focus on research and development, and the foundry is handed over to companies like TSMC. And all the time,SamsungThey are all responsible for R&D and OEM. Recently, Samsung announced its roadmap for its chip manufacturing process, and said that it will start using 6nm process chip foundry at the end of the year, and that 5nm process and 4nm process chips will be developed next year.
Samsung chip foundry plan (picture source network)
The process of the chip represents the advanced level of the technology. The 7nm manufacturing process is currently the most advanced process, and so far only a few flagship chips use this process, and the huge cost is an important reason. Samsung has adopted the 7nm manufacturing process since October last year, and has always had a relatively leading advantage.
Samsung chip foundry plan (picture source network)
The industry generally believes that the 7nm process is already close to the physical limit. The 5nm and 4nm processes in the future will not only be difficult, but will take a long time to develop, and the cost will be incalculable. The 6nm manufacturing process is just a refined version of the 7nm process, which has not changed much in essence, but the density has increased by about 10%.
In the past second quarter, Samsung's flash memory business, which has always been in a leading position, declined severely. But on the contrary, the chip foundry business has grown rapidly, especially in the mobile processors manufactured by the 10nm process and the 8nm process. The exposed chip foundry plan also exposed Samsung's strong ambitions for the future chip foundry market.