With the rapid growth of the semiconductor industry, many processors, including the Apple A11, Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, Samsung Exynos 8895, and Kirin 970, have been built on a 10 nm manufacturing process.
It is rumored that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor will be launched at the end of this year, will still be built on a 10 nm process. Now, the latest news suggests that flagship processors can be built on the 7nm manufacturing process and will be ready in the second half of next year.
Today, an insider has expressed on his Weibo that TSMC’s three ASML EUV equipment are estimated to complete installations in the first quarter of 2018. According to the insider, the 7nm process will be officially released into production at the end of the second quarter of next year, and Apple’s A12 processor will be the first to adopt this process.
He has also said that Qualcomm will apply the 7nm manufacturing process to its flagship-level processor, but he hasn’t mentioned the processor’s detailed model number. Regarding the 7nm process production schedule, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor is supposed to use this chip.
Except for the 7nm process, Samsung has just announced that its 8nm LPP process is qualified for being released into mass production. Compared with the 10nm process, the 8nm LPP process can decrease 10% of the core’s area and improve 10% efficiency in the meantime.
