Samsung is ready to mass produce its third 3nm chip design as DRAM and NAND losses mount

Why it issues: Samsung this week shared its second quarter earnings report for the three-month interval ending June 30, 2023. Income was down six % quarter over quarter – largely on account of a decline in smartphone shipments – and the corporate reported an enormous $3.4 billion working loss, however there’s a glimmer or two of hope on the horizon.

On web page eight of its outcomes and outlook report, Samsung mentioned mass manufacturing of its third GAA (gate-all-around) product goes easily now that the corporate has stabilized its 3nm course of. Samsung added that it’s growing an improved course of for 3nm primarily based on its mass manufacturing expertise with GAA.

Analysts with market intelligence agency Counterpoint Analysis mentioned earlier this month that the smartphone business skilled its eight consecutive quarter with a YoY decline in the latest quarter. Reminiscence chip makers have additionally had a tough row to hoe as of late.

TrendForce not too long ago mentioned it expects solid-state drive costs to dip a further 13 % within the third quarter. PC DRAM costs, nevertheless, have seemingly hit all-time low. In case you are available in the market for the latter, now is likely to be pretty much as good a time as any to select up some RAM for subsequent to nothing.

AnandTech famous that Samsung has been utilizing its SF3E node (previously generally known as 3GAE, 3nm gate-all-around early) to make chips for devoted cryptocurrency miners for a number of outfits together with MicroBot and PanSemi. A 3rd crypto buyer can also be utilizing Samsung’s course of, we perceive, however the Korean tech big didn’t point out any names.

Because the publication highlights, producing chips for crypto miners is a superb method for Samsung to check new fabrication processes in business functions. Even with a comparatively excessive defect charge, yields are prone to be ok to be viable for ASICs.

Samsung mentioned it expects world demand for electronics to step by step get better within the second half of this yr, resulting in improved earnings from its part enterprise.

Picture credit score: Fidel Fernando, Wu Yi