Samsung has finished developing its 8-nanometer chip processing technology and is moving to commercialise it soon, the company said on Wednesday. According to the South Korean technology giant, the new 8nm process is 10 percent more energy efficient and uses 10 percent less space when compared to the second generation 10-nanometer process which is what the new process is based on.
The 8nm Low Power Plus (8LPP) process is optimised for high-end chipsets for mobiles, servers, networks and also for virtual currencies, says Samsung.
Samsung was the first manufacturer to roll out the 10nm chip technology back in 2016. The 8-nanometer process is said to be a stop-gap measure before moving to the 7nm process which is expected to roll out in 2018. Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC is also in the running for developing 7-nanometer tech, but Samsung has an advantage with its extreme ultra violet (EUV) lithography technology as per the company. Samsung will subsequently move to 6-nanometer and 5-nanometer in 2019.
Samsung also said that its strong partnership with chipmaker Qualcomm continues to grow. Samsung and Qualcomm worked on 14nm and 10nm previously and will keep working together for the production of new chip technologies, said the company. Qualcomm is expected to use 8-nanometer in some of its early-2018 offerings since it is cheaper that 7-nanometer. This was confirmed to ZDNet by a Samsung spokesperson.