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Samsung showcases new foundry technology to challenge TSMC

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Jung Eun-seung, president of Samsung Electronics' foundry business, speaks during the Samsung Foundry Forum in Santa Clara, Calif., Tuesday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
Jung Eun-seung, president of Samsung Electronics' foundry business, speaks during the Samsung Foundry Forum in Santa Clara, Calif., Tuesday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

By Baek Byung-yeul

Samsung Electronics introduced next-generation semiconductor engineering technology and a chip design tool for fabless companies to challenge the foundry business leader TSMC, the firm said Wednesday.

The company hosted its annual Samsung Foundry Forum in Santa Clara, California, attended by 800 officials from its partner firms in the artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, fifth-generation (5G) and internet of things (IoT) sectors.

At the event, Samsung showcased a process design kit using the 3-nanometer Gate-All-Around (GAA) process, in which the firm elaborates that fabless firms can improve the performance of their chips and save energy compared to the chips using the 7-nanometer process.

"Compared to the 7-nanometer technology, the new process technology is designed to provide up to a 45 percent reduction in chip area with 50 percent lower power consumption and 35 percent higher performance," the firm said adding that the new process is expected to be widely adopted in next-generation semiconductors which can be used for AI and IoT.

Samsung, the world's largest memory chip maker, has been trying to expand its presence in the non-memory sector to diversify its business portfolio. The foundry business refers to contract-based chip manufacturing for companies that cannot afford their own facilities and the company recently announced its goal to become a leader in the sector by 2030.

Currently the firm has been placed second following TSMC of Taiwan, which had a market share of 48.1 percent in the first quarter of 2019, according to data by industry tracker TrendForce. Samsung had 19.1 percent.

"Samsung Electronics fully understands that achieving powerful and reliable solutions requires not only the most advanced manufacturing and packaging processes as well as design solutions, but also collaborative foundry-customer relations grounded in trust and a shared vision," said Jung Eun-seung, president of the firm's foundry business.

"This year's Foundry Forum is filled with compelling evidence of our commitment to progress in all those areas, and we're honored to host and converse with our industry's best and brightest," he added.

To boost the chip engineering process of its customer companies, Samsung also launched a new cloud platform.

"The platform will provide customers with a more flexible design environment through collaboration with major public cloud service providers, such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, as well as the leading Electronic Design Automation (EDA) companies, including Cadence and Synopsys," the firm said.


Baek Byung-yeul baekby@koreatimes.co.kr


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