Qualcomm seems to have finalized deals with TSMC and Samsung for the manufacturing of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which will be its first 3nm chip. Noted TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested this in a recent Medium post. Kuo said that the American chip firm has “already cooperated” with the two foundry giants for the production of its 2024 flagship processor.
After having its flagship chips manufactured by Samsung for a few years, Qualcomm switched to TSMC last year because of the former’s poor yield rates. The Taiwanese firm manufactured the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 in 2022. It will also produce this year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. While TSMC is ready with its 3nm process node, Qualcomm is sticking to 4nm to keep manufacturing costs down.
Meanwhile, Samsung has improved its advanced semiconductor yield rates in recent months. It is reportedly now on par with TSMC, if not better. As such, Qualcomm is going back to the Korean firm next year. It isn’t giving Samsung the entire manufacturing contract for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, though. If rumors are anything to go by, TSMC will manufacture the standard version while Samsung will manufacture the “for Galaxy” version for its smartphones.
It’s worth noting that dual sourcing requires more resources working on the same chip for two different foundries. In the case of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, things get even more difficult. While TSMC is sticking to the old-school FinFET transistor architecture for its 3nm solutions, Samsung is switching to the more advanced GAA architecture. So Qualcomm, which recently laid off over 400 employees, will need to efficiently manage its resources.
The company has freed up some resources by stopping chip development for Intel’s 20A node, which is reportedly equivalent to TSMC’s 3nm node. So that might help. Meanwhile, Qualcomm’s decision has put Intel’s plans for 18A R&D and mass production in jeopardy. The analyst said these plans are now “a higher level of uncertainty and risk.”
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will power Samsung’s Galaxy S25 flagships
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will debut at the end of 2024. It will power flagship Android smartphones in 2025, including Samsung’s Galaxy S25 series. The Korean firm will use the “for Galaxy” version manufactured in-house. It may not ship the phones with the Snapdragon chip globally though. Some markets may get an Exynos processor.
Samsung is rumored to bring back Exynos as early as next year. The Galaxy S24 series will ship with the Exynos 2400 in Europe, select parts of Asia, and a few other regions. Hopefully, the recent improvements may have addressed all the problems Samsung Foundry has had in the past. Otherwise, the company might have a hard time convincing people to buy Exynos-powered Galaxy flagships.
2023-08-09 15:06:02