Samsung (KRX:005930) is in trouble: Its most recent earnings report saw a double digit slip in profits, and as VR World reported yesterday its starting to undergo an extensive internal review of management. Now, if statements from Ultratech’s CEO are to be believed, it appears that the company’s 14nm FinFET process has also been delayed.

First spotted by SemiWiki’s Daniel Nenni, Art Zafiropoulo, Ultratech’s CEO, hints that a “major player” has delayed their FinFET ramp much to his company’s annoyance.

“As we have discussed on past conference calls, the difficult implementation of 3D FinFET microprocessors to high production manufacturing,” Zafiropoulo said during the call. “Once again a major logic manufacturer delayed their FinFET ramp. We had then requested to prepare LSA tools for shipment for the end of the third quarter which was delayed.”

A major delay for Samsung would be painful for the beleaguered company. The semiconductor manufacturing market is competitive, with Taiwan’s TSMC (TPE: 2330) winning big deals for Apple’s (NASDAQ: APPL) iPhone SoC. But at the same time during Samsung’s most recent earnings report this arm of the company proved to be stable.

Samsung has yet to release a statement on the state of its FinFET project. It could be the company doesn’t say anything at all. A better indicator would be if Samsung executives launch a management audit of the chipmaking division — much like what’s happening now at Samsung Display.

The post Samsung’s 14nm FinFET Appears to be Delayed appeared first on VR World.

Earlier this month, Samsung (KRX:005935) announced the Exynos 7 Octa, a 64-bit octa-core SoC with significant improvements in performance. The introduction of the Exynos 7 series also highlights Samsung’s shift to a 20nm process, a feat already achieved by TSMC (TPE:2330).

More efficient process

The move from 28nm to 20nm has discernible gains in efficiency, as showcased by Samsung during the announcement of the Exynos 7 Octa. The new SoC is claimed to be 25% more efficient when compared to the 28nm Exynos 5 Octa from last year.

Another significant advantage is in performance, with the latest SoC said to provide a 57% increase in performance. The increase in power is mainly due to the shift to the ARMv8 architecture, which sees the inclusion of 64-bit cores for the first time in an Exynos SoC.

The Exynos 7 Octa features four Cortex A57 cores that do the heavy lifting as well as four Cortex A53 cores that are utilized for more energy efficient tasks. The SoC supports HMP in the form of ARM’s big.LITTLE configuration, through which all eight cores can be active simultaneously.

Although Samsung strangely decided to not tout the benefits offered by the 64-bit CPU, the manufacturer did delve upon the Mali T760 GPU, which offers 74% increase in visual performance from T628MP6 GPU featured in the Exynos 5 Octa.

Other features in the new SoC include the addition of a new advanced multimedia format codec and a H.265 hardware decoder, along with dual image signal processors that allow users to record from both the front and rear cameras simultaneously. Also added is the ability to drive QHD (2560 x 1440 and 2560 x 1600) resolutions. 

Although the Exynos 7 Octa isn’t the first 20nm SoC manufactured by Samsung (that honor belongs to the Exynos 5 Octa), it is the first high-end mobile AP built by the silicon vendor. And with TSMC going full-tilt with a similar 20nm planar process, Samsung is going to need all the innovation it can muster.

TSMC threat

Samsung isn’t the only fab vendor shifting to 20nm, as rival TSMC has also commenced high-volume production on the 20nm process. TSMC is currently on a high after announcing its third quarter results, which saw the silicon vendor amass record revenues. The vendor has struck lucrative deals that may turn out to be significant in the long run.

One of the new deals is with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), which for the first time decided to forgo Samsung’s fab facilities in lieu of TSMC’s offerings for the production of the A8. While the motives behind the switch weren’t detailed, it is likely that TSMC’s production capacity, which is said to be double that of what Samsung can offer, played a key factor in the move away from the South Korean vendor’s facilities.

Apple stated during the announcement of the iPhone 6 that the A8 SoC was twice as dense even after an overall size reduction to the tune of 13% due to the shift to 20nm.  If that wasn’t enough, TSMC announced earlier this month that it was working with ARM (NASDAQ:ARMH) to deliver processors on a 10FinFET process node. The collaboration would result in the commercial availability of 10nm mobile SoCs by the fourth quarter of 2015, which would give ARM a sizable advantage over Intel (not that it needs one), as Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) 10nm node, dubbed Cannondale, will only be available sometime in 2016.

As for Samsung, it is likely that the chip vendor will continue to offer 20 nm SoCs for at least a year seeing as how the first batch of products featuring the hardware are just starting to be available to consumers. Samsung may have the largest market share in the Android segment, but when it comes to the mobile SoC segment, the manufacturer is far behind TSMC. With an increased focus on innovation and a closer collaboration with ARM, it looks like TSMC will be able to maintain that lead in the near future. 

The post Samsung Switches to 20nm as TSMC Aims to Attain 10nm By 2015 appeared first on VR World.

On Thursday (LON: ARM) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TPE: 2330)  announced a plan to deliver ARM-based processors on TSMC 10FinFET process node.

The two companies said that their roadmap would place the release of the 10nm chips in the fourth quarter of 2015. In the announcing press release, the companies said that the success of the transition from 20nm to 16FinFET influenced their decision to work together again on the deal.

As announced at Computex in June, ARM is building a research and innovation center in Hsinchu, Taiwan home to the headquarters of TSMC and MediaTek.

“ARM and TSMC are industry leaders in our respective fields and collectively ensure the availability of leading-edge solutions for ARM-based SoCs through our deep and long-term collaboration,” said Pete Hutton, executive vice president and president, product groups, ARM, in a statement. “Our mutual commitment to providing industry leading solutions drives us to work together early in the development cycle to optimize both the processor and the process node. This joint optimization enables ARM silicon partners to design, tape-out and bring their products to market faster.”

TSMC credits its ability to jump from 16 nm to 10FinFET on something called CoWoS (chip-on-wafer-on-substrate). No further technical details are available at this time, but are expected later in an upcoming whitepaper.

“TSMC has continuously been the lead foundry to introduce advanced process technology for ARM-based SoCs,” said Dr. Cliff Hou, TSMC vice president of R&D, in prepared remarks. “Together with ARM, we proved out in silicon the high performance and low power of the big.LITTLE architecture as implemented in 16FinFET. Given the successful adoption of our previous collaborative efforts, it makes sense that we continue this fruitful partnership with ARM in future 64-bit cores and 10FinFET.”

If TSMC and ARM are able to deliver this, it would represent a sizeable competitive advantage and would likely accelerate Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) push to smaller process nodes too.

The post ARM, TSMC Deliver Plan for 64-Bit FinFET Chips at 10nm appeared first on VR World.

Today’s announcement from the well-known full service semiconductor company, Global Foundries and QuickLogic (NASDAQ:QUIK), will interest those looking for ultra low power (ULP) sensor hubs. The new ArcticLink 3 S2 is optimized for smartphones and the new wearable devices.

QuickLogic is known as being an innovator of ultra low power programmable Customer Specific Standard Products — silicon platforms plus software solutions. Its next generation ArcticLink 3 S2 platform is sampling on Global Foundries own lower power 65 nanometer process technology. Global Foundries also prides itself on its 14nm FinFET leading edge technologies fashioned for high-volume, high-performance and power-efficient SoC applications.

Sensor hubs like the 3 S2 store sensor data and sensor algorithms and run them. They should execute those functions quickly. The ArcticLink 3 S2 Sensor Hub a context-aware sensor hub. It promises OEMs four times the computational capability, four times the sensor algorithm memory, and eight times the sensor data memory in a pin-identical footprint. The hub’s active power consumption is ~150μW, meaning the sub-system consumes less than 2 percent of system battery resources. A video explanation of the new ArcticLink 3 S2 can be viewed here.

The 3 S2 is completely compatible with the Android 4.x OS, including KitKat 4.4, and RTOS-based systems. It can support 12 sensors simultaneously, such as gesture, heart rate, gyroscope, and ambient light. The developer provides standard Android driver libraries so OEM systems can quickly integrate with the hub. Software, sensor and sensor algorithm engineers are able to customize the functionality of the ArcticLink 3 S2 through QuickLogic’s Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Development Board.

Global Foundries’ 65nm LPe (low power enhanced) technology significantly improves power utilization while extending battery life by using innovative leakage reduction techniques. This makes it perfect for battery operated mobile applications that are cost sensitive. The semiconductor company’s technology is helping QuickLogic optimize its latest product.

Brian Faith, vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at QuickLogic and an Adjunct Lecturer at Santa Clara University for Programmable Logic courses said: “This new collaboration with Global Foundries as the manufacturer for the S2 platform will help us meet our demanding time-to-market requirements with a technology that delivers the right balance of performance, power consumption, and cost.”
Gregg Bartlett, senior vice president of product management at Global Foundries pointed out: “As the industry continues its seismic shift from PC to mobility, a whole new set of applications and devices are driving the need for differentiated silicon solutions,”

QuickLogic Corporation is traded as QUIK on NASDAQ and has held a value in the mid $3.00 for the last five years. Global Foundries is privately held, owned by Mubadala Development Company out of Abu Dhabi. Global Foundries has three 300mm fabs and five 200mm fabs providing a full range of process technologies from mainstream to the leading edge from the US to Germany to Malta to Singapore.

The S2 Sensor Hub is expected to be production-certified in Q4 2014.

The post Next Gen of ULP Sensor Hubs is on Its Way appeared first on VR World.

Samsung and Globalfoundries have announced a partnership to collaborate on a global scale to deliver 14nm FinFET technology to their customers. This partnership is different from the already existing Common Platform Alliance which includes Globalfoundries, Samsung and IBM, but is likely a product of that relationship considering that IBM is mostly a research fab and doesn’t really produce many commercial wafers. This 14nm FinFET collaboration is an effort by both companies to build up enough fab capacity in order to satisfy the demand of their customers on this leading-edge technology.

As you can see from the slide above Samsung and Globalfoundries’ partnership means that the two companies are able to deliver both choice, supply, compatibility and to do it all on a global scale with multiple fabs around the world. This 14nm FinFET partnership will cover both 14LPE and 14LPP processes which will allow for multiple products across the board to be manufactured with either Samsung or Globalfoundries’ 14nm FinFET. In the past, Samsung and Globalfoundries talked about how the Common Platform would enable such partnerships to occur and to be honest many didn’t believe that it would be possible, especially with Samsung being so tightlipped at the Common Platform Alliance last year.

According to Globalfoundries and Samsung, their new 14LPE 14nm process will boost performance by 20% while simultaneously delivering a 35% power savings over competitor’s 20nm solutions (clearly targeting TSMC and their 20nm here). They also compare themselves against other FinFET solutions and 20nm solutions, specifically targeting the value proposition of switching to 14nm FinFET indicating a 15% smaller chip with the switch from 20nm Planar to 14nm FinFET.

In terms of the capacity itself and the fabs capable of delivering this capacity, there will be a total of 4 fabs in 3 locations delivering this 14nm capacity to customers. Those come in the form of three Samsung fabs and one Globalfoundries fab. The locations of these fabs are actually in two countries, the US and Korea, even though Globalfoundries does have fabs in Singapore and Germany as well. However, those are not part of Globalfoundries current 14nm plans so they aren’t counted as part of the fab capacity for 14nm.

In addition to the four fabs on two continents, Samsung and Globalfoundries also talked about their expectations for 14nm FinFEt with the Design In phase already ready and a ramp of the process expected to occur by the end of 2014. They have already qualified the 14LPE process back in February and have already released the 14LPE and 14LPP PDK along with all of the libraries and IP design kits. Essentially, now is the finalization phase of various processes with certain chip designs with mass production occuring by the end of this year. What this could mean is that some of TSMC’s customers building for their 20nm process could see themselves leapfrogged by this new Samsung and Globalfoundries 14nm collaboration, especially if they can deliver enough volume to the customers that matter. Obviously, we probably won’t be seeing any 14nm products this year, but a Q1 release wouldn’t be out of the question, which could mean that we may end up seeing some products in time for MWC.

Samsung and Globalfoundries have quietly been working together to steal customers from TSMC, their biggest competitor, meanwhile Intel has been chugging away at their own 14nm process trying to maintain their foundry leadership. If Samsung and TSMC are able to deliver 14nm early enough and to fill their capacity, they could give their customers an advantage that many of them have been hoping for. Parity with Intel’s own processes. While it remains to be seen who will be utilizing Samsung and Globalfoundries 14nm processes we have already been hearing some murmurings about some large semiconductor companies exploring this new collaboration’s 14nm process. It will be interesting to see how chips built on this 14nm FinFET process will compete against Intel’s 14nm process as well as how TSMC will answer today’s announcement considering that their 20nm appears to be having some problems with some partners. We do know that there’s a good chance that a lot of TSMC’s 20nm will be occupied by Qualcomm and their new chips, but I have a feeling that 20nm will be a fairly shortlived node.

Samsung and Globalfoundries have also created a video that talks about this 14nm FinFET partnership and what it means to the companies, their partners, and the industry as a whole.

The post Samsung and Globalfoundries Collaborate on 14nm FinFET appeared first on VR World.