TSMC to speed up 10nm development to fend off Samsung

DigiTimes heard rumors that TSMC plans to speed up development of its 10nm process to protect its lead against the rise of Samsung's foundry division, which is developing 14nm faster than what TSMC has thought.

The firms are currently competing fiercely in the development of FinFET processes, TSMC offers a 16nm node while Samsung decided to go for 14nm. Both nodes are expected to enter volume production in early 2015 and according to the rumor mill Samsung has landed 14nm FinFET chip orders from Qualcomm.

TSMC has been pioneering the development of the FinFET technology and originally planned to begin producing 16nm FinFET chips in the fourth quarter of 2014, said the sources.

Nevertheless, TSMC has rescheduled the commercial production of 16nm FinFET process, and instead plans to roll out a more advanced 16nm FinFET Plus process, which will consume less power and further reduce die sizes.