The 3-nanometer chip race has come to an end with Samsung upstaging TSMC, the world’s first semiconductor foundry as the first company to start production. At the fag end of June, Samsung announced that it has started production of its first batch of 3nm chips. The 3nm chip once it arrives in the market, is going to be the most advanced chip till date. Samsung promises huge performance and efficiency enhancements with this line.
Compared to the previous 5nm process, the 3nm fabrication process is 45% more power efficient. As for performance gains, that has been estimated at 23% . For its 3nm line, Samsung is using the Gate-All-Around transistor architecture (GAAT FET) which shrinks the surface area by 16%. For the time being, Samsung intends the 3nm chips for use for high performance and low-power computing before they are put in Smartphones. A second generation is already in the cards which will have even higher performance and lesser surface area.
Writing for AnandTech, Ryan Smith covers this news in the article titled – “Samsung Starts 3nm Production: The Gate-All-Around (GAAFET) Era Begins”. Breaking the news, he writes:
Capping off a multi-year development process, Samsung’s foundry group sends word this morning that the company has officially kicked off production on its initial 3nm chip production line. Samsung’s 3nm process is the industry’s first commercial production process node using gate-all-around transistor (GAAFET) technology, marking a major milestone for the field of silicon lithography, and potentially giving Samsung a major boost in its efforts to compete with TSMC.
For the complete specification of the GAA FET process, read the rest of Smith’s article – Samsung Starts 3nm Production: The Gate-All-Around (GAAFET) Era Begins.
