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takyon writes:

Samsung has qualified its 8nm "low power plus" process for production 3 months earlier than planned. It is a slightly improved version of the company's 10nm process, and a stop-gap before Samsung begins production of a 7nm process using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. TSMC will release its 7nm process chips before Samsung, but won't use EUV for the initial generation. Samsung's 8LPP chips will improve power consumption by 10% and reduce die size by 10% (compared to 10LPP):

Years ago, Samsung seemed to have bet on the fact that 10nm will be a long-lasting process generation, so it prioritized it over the 7nm node. Meanwhile, TSMC decided to skip the 10nm node entirely and go straight to 7nm, with its own stop-gap at 12nm, which is essentially a slightly improved 16nm process.

TSMC seems to have gotten this one right, but Samsung could also achieve early expertise on EUV lithography, which could be the future of process technology. In other words, TSMC may have won this battle, but Samsung may ultimately win the war (or at least the next few process generation battles).

Because 7nm will arrive later than the competition, Samsung is now doing what TSMC did with its 12nm node and will offer a small update to its 10nm process, which it calls the 8LPP generation. The new 8LPP generation brings a 10% improvement in power consumption, as well as up to 10% die area reduction, which could be translated into cost savings for Samsung's customers. Samsung promises further cost-savings due to the high yield that this process generation can achieve, as it's already based on the proven 10nm process.

Also at Engadget and ZDNet.

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