Qualcomm is going with TSMC for 7nm Snapdragons, not Samsung

12 June 2017
Samsung built the S835 on its 10nm process this year. TSMC built the Apple A10 chips and will be making the A11 too.

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  • Simon
  • 0xL
  • 21 Aug 2017

AnonD-659932, 20 Jul 2017all else being equal, i'd take a tsmc chip over samsung any day.And why would you do that exactly? They are trading blows with TSMC and competing fairly, with some processes being better at Samsung, and some at TSMC, but Samsung is more consistent and offers fair pricing at their fabs.

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    • AnonD-659932
    • c{f
    • 20 Jul 2017

    all else being equal, i'd take a tsmc chip over samsung any day.

      Anonymous, 18 Jul 2017And yet Samsung Semicon recorded All Time High profit, whi... moreGlobalfoundries made PC chips while Samsung made smartphone chips. Smartphone chips sold more, simple, that's why Samsung recorded higher profits, that doesn't make GlobalFoundries crap.

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        • Anonymous
        • fxT
        • 18 Jul 2017

        NotAFanboyy, 30 Jun 2017AMD is using GlobalFoundries process mainly, Samsung for so... moreAnd yet Samsung Semicon recorded All Time High profit,
        while Globalfoundaries went south with all time high losses
        What a joke, and Globalfoundation is up for sales...

          FreezeGame, 13 Jun 2017Samsung will definitely produce SD845 chips. TSMC can't han... moreWhich won't be the better option. Chipgate on the iPhone 6S showed how TSMC's 16nm chip was running cooler and had lower power consumption than Samsung's 14nm. Samsung half asses its nodes to rush to the market without shrinking the transistor pitches to compete with TSMC, but what they make is incomplete, TSMC makes complete nodes with proper transistor pitch shrinks.

            Simon, 27 Jun 2017TSMC is cheaper, that's what. AMD is building using the S... moreAMD is using GlobalFoundries process mainly, Samsung for some cheaper and lower-end chips.

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              • Anonymous
              • 0xL
              • 27 Jun 2017

              It was a very peculiar and temporary situation anyway, when Samsung's biggest competitors (Qualcomm for chips, Apple in smartphones) used to develop their chips at.. Samsung, wasn't it? I'm pretty sure even Samsung was surprised, but yeah, TSMC is cheaper and they will have a suitable competing process now.

                • S
                • Simon
                • 0xL
                • 27 Jun 2017

                TSMC is cheaper, that's what.
                AMD is building using the Samsung process, Samsung pursues Exynos, and all is well in the world.

                  kakouille, 13 Jun 2017you need helpThat's what any fanboy would say.

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                    • HomerS66
                    • pQP
                    • 15 Jun 2017

                    Samsung has helped others in suing Qualcomm, it seems Qualcomm diden't like that very much.

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                      • Anonymous
                      • 4S2
                      • 13 Jun 2017

                      kakouille, 13 Jun 2017Stop lyingI believe what he said is the truth. TSMC is better than Noobsung.

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                        • .alpha
                        • ytx
                        • 13 Jun 2017

                        Samsung is purposely affecting SD 835's supply for its own gain so of course Qualcomm is going with another fab

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                          • AnonD-23465
                          • yZt
                          • 13 Jun 2017

                          kakouille, 13 Jun 2017Stop lyingHave a look yourself- https://9to5mac.com/2015/10/08/tsmc-iphone-6s-samsung-chipgate/ . I believe now is a good time to come out of that heavy rock you have survived for so long under.

                            NotAFanboyy, 13 Jun 2017Nope, the situation will be some vendors forced to use the ... moreyou need help

                              AnonD-23465, 13 Jun 2017No. The flaw was in qualcomm's design and not TSMC's manufa... moreStop lying

                                Trump fan 1980, 13 Jun 2017 Maybe one day Samsung will outfit other manufacturers hand... moreThe game is already over. Samsung has admitted defeat for 2018 and TSMC is already working on and heavily investing in 5nm and 3nm. Snapdragon 845 will crush the 2018 Exynos and that will bite Samsung in the ass if they go Exynos only.

                                  FreezeGame, 13 Jun 2017Samsung will definitely produce SD845 chips. TSMC can't han... moreNope, the situation will be some vendors forced to use the 835 in 2018 just like LG is using the 821 in 2018. TSMC can handle such a big volume because 7nm chips are much smaller and a wafer can hold a lot more 7nm chips than Samsung's fake 10nm (very wide transistor pitch). Economies of scale is a huge advantage for TSMC. Also Samsung's 7nm will not be superior. TSMC's 20nm was better than Samsung's 20nm, TSMC's 16nm was better than Samsung's 14nm and it has always been this way, Samsung focused on cheaper half-assed solutions to make fake 14nm and fake 10nm to bring them to the market faster, not for actual performance or quality. I would be very surprised if Samsung could actually beat TSMC in performance at the same node, since Samsung focuses on quantity over quality and rushes half-assed nodes with wide transistor pitches to the market.

                                    Zero, 13 Jun 2017Wait... Isn't the same TSMC the one who royally screwed Qua... moreNot really. It was Qualcomm who use a bad design, which is referencing to ARM's design itself, since 810 cores was not designed in-house. Back then, when they want to step up from ARMv7 (32 bit) to ARMv8 (64 bit), Qualcomm didn't have enough time to complete their in-house design (no Krait successor on that time). Their bad design to achieve higher performance cost them low resistance to heat, which cause the SoC throttled nearly all the time (with A57 kicks in intermittently before it goes to sleep for cooling down again).

                                      Samsung will definitely produce SD845 chips. TSMC can't handle such a heavy order on its own. Period.

                                      Qualcomm will not move forward until it surveys Samsung's 7nm kit in July, which will be the better option.

                                      FG

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                                        • Anonymous
                                        • uCm
                                        • 13 Jun 2017

                                        I'm sceptical, can tsmc really get 7nm ready for for first half of next year? It's more likely for 2019. I don't believe this news. Also it may mean samsung going full exynos for its lineup.