from Hacker News

Samsung Foundry Forum announcements

by ittan on 10/7/21, 11:49 PM with 124 comments

  • by MangoCoffee on 10/8/21, 2:27 AM

    > process technology migration to 3- and 2-nanometer (nm) based on the company’s Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor structure

    I believe GAA is the next gen tech for the node process. Samsung is the first foundry to do GAA w/3nm while TSMC is sticking w/FinFET for their 3nm. It'll be interesting to see how 3nm FinFET compare to 3nm GAA.

    https://www.anandtech.com/show/16041/where-are-my-gaafets-ts...

    edit:

    >After that, transistor structures begin to change. Samsung and TSMC are manufacturing chips at 7nm and 5nm based on today’s finFETs. Samsung will move to nanosheet FETs at 3nm. Intel is also developing GAA technology. TSMC plans to extend finFETs to 3nm, and then will migrate to nanosheet FETs at 2nm around 2024.

    https://semiengineering.com/the-increasingly-uneven-race-to-...

  • by 1-6 on 10/8/21, 1:26 AM

    Samsung has a dishonorable marketing department. 3nm is not actually 3nm. I'm fed up... OLED is superior so they had to take the path of calling theirs QLED which is actually just an LCD screen with phosphors on top of a blue backlight (and it's nothing new).
  • by nabaraz on 10/8/21, 12:51 AM

    I can never remember what xnm means as it varies between companies.

    In this case,

    Samsung's 3nm = Intel's 7nm

    I am still waiting for a standard based on transistor density numbers!

  • by catmanjan on 10/8/21, 12:55 AM

    There are a few comments saying that 3nm is a marketing term and that the transistors are actually larger - how is this allowed? Isn't it misleading and deceptive?
  • by spark3k on 10/8/21, 12:35 AM

    At what point does quantum tunnelling become a problem?
  • by kulor on 10/8/21, 12:39 PM

    For silicon n00bs like myself, listen to Acquired's recent episode for some context on how hard this area of innovation is https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/tsmc.

    Off the back of this episode, I can't help but feel TSMC's monopoly needs disrupting with players like Samsung to contend with Taiwan & China's geopolitical tension.

  • by yboris on 10/8/21, 4:27 AM

    > Samsung To Mass Produce 2nm Chips in 2025

    https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-foundry-to-produce...

  • by pabs3 on 10/8/21, 4:00 AM

    Hmm, I wonder how this compares to TSMC/Intel in terms of transistor density?

    Is transistor density the best measure of chip competitiveness these days?

  • by hokumguru on 10/8/21, 12:50 AM

    At what point do we have to stop because we’ve hit physical limits? At 3nm we are talking transistors only a few dozen atoms wide, what’s the smallest theoretical transistor we can build?
  • by freen on 10/8/21, 2:40 AM

    If their chip fan has the same commitment to QA as their TV’s, I’ll pass.