According to a tipster, Qualcomm might consider dual-sourcing of its two Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 variants from both TSMC and Samsung Foundry.
Qualcomm’s current high-end chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, is manufactured by TSMC using its 4nm process node. In the past. Qualcomm has had its flagship application processor built in some years by TSMC and by Samsung Foundry in other years. For example, the Snapdragon 855 and 865 were built by TSMC using its 7nm and enhanced 7nm nodes respectively. The Snapdragon 888 SoC and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 were produced by Samsung Foundry.
But last year Qualcomm, seeking to increase the performance of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, turned production of the 4nm chip over to TSMC. This also occurred at the same time it was discovered that Samsung Foundry’s yields on its 4nm production was a paltry 35%. This means that at the time, 65% of the die produced on a 300mm wafer did not pass quality control. As a result, Qualcomm decided to turn manufacturing of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 AP over to TSMC.
Even though Samsung has reportedly improved its 4nm yield to 70%, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipsets (including the “for Galaxy” variant) are built by TSMC. According to tipster Revegnus (via Wccftech), Qualcomm is considering a dual-sourcing strategy for future high-end chipsets.
