Stefan Mileschin

Samsung Foundry formally started to produce chips using its 7LPP (7 nm low power plus) fabrication process last October and has not slowdown development of its manufacturing technologies since then. The company is on track to start mass production using its refined 6LPP (6 nm low power plus) technology in the second half of 2019. In addition, the company said that it would tape out its first 5LPE (5 nm low power early) SoCs and would complete development of its 4LPE (4 nm low power early) process in the coming months too.
Strong Demand for Chips

Because of dropping DRAM and NAND prices, consolidated revenue of Samsung’s Semiconductor Business dropped to KRW 16.09 trillion ($14.302 billion) in the second quarter, whereas operating profit totaled KRW 3.4 trillion ($2.877 billion). While Samsung’s memory businesses were weak, the company said that its foundry business demonstrated robust results.

According to Samsung, its contract production division saw strong demand for mobile SoCs made using 10LPP/8LPP technologies as well as mobile, HPC, automotive, and network products fabbed using 14LPx/10LPP processes. Overall, it is evident that Samsung Foundry makes loads of premium products using its leading-edge FinFET process technologies.

In the next several years Samsung Foundry will continue to use its 14 nm, 10 nm, and 7 nm nodes perfected for particular applications either by optimizations or by plugging in advanced modules.

Like other contract makers of semiconductors, Samsung refines each of its nodes in order to meet requirements of various applications and clients rather than leaps ahead with radically different nodes every 18 – 24 months (like makers of chips used to do traditionally). Considering all the difficulties that engineers have to overcome developing new manufacturing technologies, the approach allows Samsung to better manage its R&D costs and manufacturing risks.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/14695...m-4nm-on-track