Chip development strives for ever greater efficiency, and in the past everything indicated that the scissors between Samsung and TSMC will continue to widen in this direction. Latest informace however, they now indicate that Samsung has refined aspects of its 4nm process, which is likely to be used in Google's Tensor G3 and therefore in future Pixel phones.
Server & Hosting Pulse News reports that Samsung has seen improvements in the yield of its 4nm chipmaking process, now approaching the established 5nm process. In chip manufacturing, yield refers to the amount of chips produced on one wafer compared to the maximum technically possible number.
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The Korean technology giant has been working on 4nm chips since 2021, but for a long time it was lagging behind TSMC, whose process was better both qualitatively and in terms of the mentioned yield. In 2022, Qualcomm transferred the production of its 8th generation Snapdragons 1 from Samsung's factories to TSM itself, and this change alone resulted in, among other things, much better energy efficiency. The source further mentions that according to insiders, Samsung's 4nm process is now comparable to TSMC's.
While this may not last long, it could be good news for some brands. As a result of the aforementioned improvements, AMD has apparently entered into a partnership with Samsung, and the new process is likely to be used for Google's latest generation Tensor chipset as well.
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While the Tensor G2, found in the Pixel 7 series devices and the upcoming Pixel Tablet and Pixel Fold, used Samsung's 5nm process, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro appear to herald Google's first 4nm smartphones with the Tensor G3 using the Korean manufacturer's updated and now improved process .
