Samsung claims the production of 14nm-Finfet chips to be started for an unnamed customer. Thus, the production would much sooner have started than initially thought. It is possible, the customer’s AMD, Qualcomm, or Apple.
The 14nm-Finfet-production is ‘very good’ and Samsung’s chips to produce for a customer, Kim Ki-nam, head of Samsung’s chip-branch on ZDNet know. Further, he showed nothing about the production, and it is unclear, therefore, whether the testproductie and for which customer it is. Initially were rumors that Samsung was only in the second half of 2015, the 14nm Finfet production would start. TSMC announced its 16nm Finfet-mass production also around that time to start. The South Korean company has made a lot of market share from TSMC to take over and to work together with Global Foundries.
Previous posts talked about the fact that Samsung for Apple, Qualcomm and AMD chips on a new process would make. For an Apple A9 soc, a new generation of iPhones and iPads, it is still too early, but it would be for the S1 chips for Apple Watch. Apple would benefit from the improvements in the area of consumption that the 14nm production entails.
According to Samsung consume 14nm-Finfet-chips roughly 35 percent less than 20nm-High-K-Metal-Gate variants, while the potential increase in performance of 20 percent. The 14nm chips are 15 percent smaller. Intel is already on 14nm production for Broadwell chips, but the chipgigant is already in its second generation of Finfet or Tri-Gate production busy.
Finfet is, in brief, a transistortype with a larger gate surface as the gate of transistors not on the channel back manufactured, but there it is surrounded. The transistors can switch more quickly and are due to lower leakage currents more economical.