Samsung

Samsung starts production on 3nm chips ahead of TSMC, claims 45% reduction in power consumption

Ben Schoon | Jun 30 2022 - 6:41 am PT

Samsung’s chip business has just announced a new milestone, with production on 3nm chips starting with a big reduction on power consumption.

As Bloomberg reports, Samsung has officially started production on chips using a 3nm process. This beats Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to the punch, as the larger chipmaker is looking to move to the more efficient process in the second half of 2022.

Samsung is using a “Gate-All-Around” transistor architecture to produce these chips, which are being used first for high-performance and specialized low-power computing applications before moving on to more well-known uses, such as smartphone processors.

Samsung claims that its 3nm process brings a 45% reduction in power consumption, as well as a 23% boost in overall performance. That’s compared to a 5nm process, though, and Samsung has not shared the same comparison for 4nm chips that have been widely used in 2022.

For reference, the Snapdragon 888 was built on a 5nm process, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 uses a 4nm process. The second-generation Google Tensor chip is expected to stick with a 4nm process later this year, despite Samsung producing the chips.

In a blog post, Samsung explains that it hopes to boost the performance of its 3nm chips even further with a second generation improving performance as much as 30%.

Compared to 5nm process, the first-generation 3nm process can reduce power consumption by up to 45%, improve performance by 23% and reduce area by 16% compared to 5nm, while the second-generation 3nm process is to reduce power consumption by up to 50%, improve performance by 30% and reduce area by 35%.

Samsung will start producing its 3nm chips in facilities in Hwaseong before expanding to its newer fab in Pyeongtaek.