Samsung has beaten Intel today as the Korean tech giants have announced that they will begin manufacturing 10-nanometer processors.
These processors will be built using Samsung’s own 10-nanometer FinFET process, giving the processors a multi-layer 3D transistor structure with an improved design. As the transistors of the 10nm chips are approaching atomic sizes, Samsung will need to do “triple-patterning,” etching the chips hree times with electron beams to increase the feature density. The processors are stated to yield 27 percent better performance and 40 percent lower power consumption than the current 14-nanometer chips, which translates to faster, more power efficient devices.
While Samsung remains tight-lipped as to who they are building the 10nm SoCs for, Electronic Times has reported that Samsung has an exclusive deal with Qualcomm to build the Snapdragon 830 processor using the 10-nanometer tech. Samsung has said that the first generation of 10nm SoCs will appear in devices early next year, while the second generation chips will arrive in the second half of 2017.
Source: Samsung Newsroom, Electronic Times, Engadget