Samsung has announced that it will begin mass producing 7nm chips this year. To be more specific, the company has said that the manufacturing process will take place sometime in the second half of 2018. For those who may not be aware, current generation mobile chips are based off of the 10nm process technology.
Given the announcement, Samsung’s future Exynos processors along with Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 855 chip will be based on the new 7nm process technology. The company also mentioned that the smaller 7nm chips will be the first to use the “EUV lithography solution.” That said, consumers won’t be seeing 7nm-based processors will only be released sometime in 2019.
Aside from Samsung and Qualcomm processors, Apple too will be employing the 7nm process technology for its A12 SoC, albeit from TSMC instead of Samsung Electronics. This of course, means that the next generation of iPhones will be equipped with 7nm chips; which means they should be more power efficient.
Samsung is also aiming to manufacture 5nm processors in 2019, 4nm chips in 2020, and 3nm chips tentatively in 2021. Either way, “big name” semiconductor manufacturers like Samsung Electronics and TSMC are indeed moving towards smaller process technologies at a rapid pace.
(Source: Android Authority, AppleInsider)
