In the field of science and technology, innovation and progress are the eternal themes. Sometimes, however, in order to communicate the benefits of a product more effectively, businesses resort to clever tactics such as changing the product name or rebranding the technical terminology. Recently, South Korean electronics giant Samsung took such an approach, rebranding its advanced semiconductor manufacturing process from "second-generation 3nm" to "2nm".
Some analysts pointed out that Samsung's move is to better compete with rival TSMC's advanced process technology, and is also in line with the recent trend of the foundry industry. TSMC has established a strong market position globally, and Samsung hopes to boost its brand image and market recognition with this rebranding action.
In January this year, there was a South Korean report that Samsung Electronics has begun to manufacture the second generation of 3nm process (SF3) test products, and plans to increase its yield to more than 60% within 6 months, and there is also data showing that compared with the previous generation process, SF3 process can improve performance by 20% under the same power consumption and number of transistors, and reduce power consumption by 34% under the same performance.
It is understood that Samsung's "second-generation 3nm" process originally referred to an advanced process technology that uses a GAA (gate-all-around) transistor structure. This structure provides lower power consumption and higher performance than conventional FinFET transistor structures. However, due to the fact that there is already a certain recognition and expectation of the "nm" unit in the market, Samsung decided to rename the process to "2nm" in order to make it easier for consumers to understand the advanced nature of its technology, and also to better attract the attention of more consumers, so as to occupy a favorable position in the competition with competitors such as TSMC.
According to Samsung's previously announced process roadmap, the second-generation 3nm will be mass-produced in 2024 and 2nm in 2025. Previously, market news showed that the Japanese AI company Preferred Networks IncSamsung was selected as the foundry partner and ordered the first order for 2nm production of AI chips, which was once the "second-generation 3nm process", which made Samsung ahead of TSMC in the field of 2nm process.
Samsung's chip process roadmap.
Overall, Samsung's move once again proves the importance of marketing in the high-tech industry. In this ever-changing era, if you want to win the competition, you need not only strong product power, but also how to effectively deliver the value of products and attract consumers has become one of the key factors for the success of enterprises.