Samsung has announced that it is ready to begin production of 8nm chips. The company has completed certification and qualification for its 8LPP (Low Power Plus) production node, meaning that its next chip will have leapt ahead of the competition in terms of die shrinkage.
Receiving qualification three months earlier than anticipation, Samsung Foundry said that,”8LPP is expected to rapidly ramp-up to the level of stable yield by adopting the already proven 10nm process technology.” In other words, the new 8LPP chips will still be built using the same methods currently applied. Not the much anticipated EUV (extreme ultra violet) lithography that’s set to bed used in the production of 7nm chips.
While the implications for mobile System on a Chip (SoC) production is great (better yields, less chip binning, more transistors in a same die area), the use of 8LPP production node will also benefit other areas as well.
This includes cryptocurrency and network/server use. New chips designed for cryptocurrency mining can be created at a lower cost. At the same time, new network-centric SoC can be designed with better yields and performance in the long run.
Potential customers includes Samsung’s Exynos division, as well as Qualcomm for its upcoming Snapdragon products. Samsung did not share when the first chips using the new node process will be available, however it is announcing the road-map for the 8LPP production node at the Samsung Foundry Forum Europe happening in Munich.
(Source: Samsung )
