More capacity should lead to cheaper chips.
When it comes to advanced semiconductor technology, there’s one name that sits above all: TSMC. But there are others seeking to challenge the Taiwanese behemoth. Intel is spending billions in order to claim a larger slice of the chip making pie. GlobalFoundries and UMC are often cited as competitors too. Then there’s Samsung, a name everyone knows.
Though it hasn’t been able to compete with TSMC at the bleeding edge of semiconductor manufacturing in recent years, Samsung has made no secret of the fact that it wants to challenge and surpass TSMC. Though Samsung and TSMC’s 3nm nodes are not equal, the differences don’t matter much if yields aren’t up to par, and Samsung is reportedly doing well on that front.
According to Korean-based newspaper Kukmin Ilbo (via @harukaze5719) Samsung’s 3nm yields are currently around the 60% mark, above the 55% level of TSMC. In contrast, Samsung’s 4nm yield is 75%, while TSMC is at 80%. That’s expected. As nodes mature, yields increase.
Recall that Nvidia’s RTX 30 Ampere GPUs were made with Samsung’s 8nm node, whereas RTX 40 cards are made with a tweaked TSMC’s 4N node.
