Qualcomm awarded the contract to manufacture Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chips to Samsung Foundry. However, an order for an upgraded version of the processor, called Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, went to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).
Now, a new report coming from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Qualcomm awarded a contract to TSMC to exclusively manufacture the next-generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip as well as the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 chip.
This is a major blow to Samsung Foundry which has made Qualcomm its most important customer for high-end chips. With Qualcomm moving to TSMC, the Taiwan-based company will significantly increase its market advantage.
While details about the processor of the next-gen flagship phone are still unknown, it is likely that they will stick with the 4 nm node process for their future chips. This is the same as used in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 series.
Reporting from Gizmochina (14/7), one of the main reasons Qualcomm decided to switch to TSMC was that the results were less than optimal. As per the report, the yield of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 produced by Samsung is 35%. That is, out of 100 pieces made, only 35 were useful and 65 were damaged.
Recently Samsung started production of 3nm chips. It uses a Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor architecture for a power-efficient chip and enhanced performance. The company is also developing a second generation 3nm process node that will offer significant improvements in several areas.
