Samsung Creates 8-Nanometer Chips, Partners With Qualcomm For Mass Production

Samsung has done it again. The South Korean company is set to start mass-producing 8-nanometer low power plus chips (LPP) with the help of Qualcomm. The chip offers improvements in power consumption and performance in key areas. Samsung also confirmed that the chip will be used by Qualcomm, but kept the specifics under wraps.

In a recent newswire post, Samsung explains what makes the 8LPP chip relevant to the future of smartphone computing. The company also provided a timeline for when the chips can be shipped.

“The newest process node, 8LPP provides up to 10-percent lower power consumption with up to 10-percent area reduction from 10LPP through narrower metal pitch. 8LPP will provide differentiated benefits for applications including mobile, cryptocurrency and network/server, and is expected to be the most attractive process node for many other high performance applications,” the post reads.

This makes Samsung the first company to mass-produce an 8LPP chip and in order to do so, the company had to use a process that was nearly identical to how the 10LPP chip was made, Tech Spot reports. Doing so apparently allowed Samsung to complete the development of the product three months ahead of schedule.

A spokesperson for the South Korean tech giant also confirmed to ZDNet that Qualcomm will be using the chip for their own purposes. However, the spokesperson did not provide specifics as to what these purposes are.

Considering how heated the battle between Qualcomm and Apple is becoming, perhaps the mobile chip maker is ramping up its ambitions to make the market less friendly for the Cupertino firm. This is all just conjunctions, at this point, however.

There are rumors that a 7-nanometer chip is underway. However, by all accounts, the difference between the two chips is negligible and the 8-nanometer chip is already based on a proven method of production.