Samsung tips crazy 2nm/3nm chip specs and record revenue
Samsung will be announcing its largest ever revenue for a single quarter when it reports its July-September earnings. The earnings preview estimates around $61.2 billion in quarterly revenue and $13.23 billion in operating profit, riding on the wings of chip sales.
The global chip shortage is starting to recede somewhat, it still managed to raise semiconductor prices significantly, and Samsung is doing very well, thank you, as its memory and processor silicon go into everything now. The record $61.2 billion figure is in its turn 28% higher than the same period last year, and higher than the previous quarter, too.
Buoyed by the financial success of its semiconductor division, Samsung announced that it is not only starting the production of 3nm chips next June, but it has also taped out the 2nm process for mass 2025 production, reports The Elec.
For comparison, the current processors in the iPhone 13 and Galaxy S21 are made on the 5nm process, and Samsung says its 2nm method is based on the new gate all around (GAA) method that uses four surfaces for chip packing and current control instead of the current three-surface FinFET method.
Samsung's 3nm processors won't be for Galaxy S22 or iPhone 14
As a result of the GAA production method Samsung can squeeze much more transistors at the same space, and, thankfully, the 3nm chips it will churn out next year will also be made using the gate-all-around method.
By moving from FinFET to GAA, Samsung has achieved dramatically better 3nm chip specifications compared to the current 5nm FinFET processors like Apple's A15 or Snapdragon 888.
How about up to 50% performance or power efficiency increase and 35% smaller chips compared to the 5nm ones? Given that Apple's chip maker TSMC announced 7% performance or 15% efficiency gains from the Apple A14 to the current Apple A15 production method, Samsung's 3nm specs sound breathtaking.
A June tapeout means that the 3nm GAA silicon won't be ready in time for the Galaxy S22 so it will most likely be powered by second-gen 5nm process chipsets like the rumored Snapdragon 898 and Exynos 2200. That's what Apple does with the iPhone 13 and the A15 processor.
A 3nm production in June 2022 may sound like destined for an Apple A16 in the iPhone 14 but these things get decided much earlier in the game. Moreover, Apple's processors are made by TSMC which is running late with its own 3nm production process so the Apple A16 will most likely be produced on the 4nm method.
Thus we may see 3nm A16X or Apple A17 in an iPad Pro first, just as rumored, but given that the first OLED iPad Pro is not scheduled to arrive before 2023, Apple may very well have no 3nm products next year.
Galaxy Z Fold 4, however, is another matter altogether, as that puppy may be released next August when Samsung will already be flying on the 3nm wings.
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