The company is not yet ready to either confirm or deny such a decision.
In 2024, Samsung intends to begin producing chips using the 2nm process technology, according to the Korean publication ZDNet. There is a nuance: the transition to a new technical process will supposedly be purely formal.
According to the publication, Samsung told customers that it would change the name of the SF3 process technology, where 3 means 3 nanometers, to SF2, which implies a 2 nm process technology. It is emphasized that this is only about changing the name.
Samsung Electronics told us that the name of the second generation of 3nm process technology will be changed to 2mm. Last year we signed a contract with Samsung Foundry to produce the second generation 3nm process technology, but recently the contract was renegotiated because the name was changed to 2nm.
As Tom's Hardware notes, with a real change in process technology, it would be necessary not only to renegotiate the contract, but also to redesign the chip, which was originally intended for a different process technology.
Production of chips based on the SF2 process, formerly known as SF3, is expected to start in the second half of 2024. The editors of ZDNet were unable to find out why Samsung decided to turn the 3nm process technology into 2nm.
Representatives of Samsung itself neither confirmed nor denied the publication’s information. At the same time, the company announced that it was preparing to make a number of announcements related to the production of chips.
If the publication's data is confirmed, then Samsung will not be the only company whose marketing names of technical processes do not correspond to real ones. For example, Intel's Intel 7 process technology doesn't mean it's using a 7nm process: it's actually a 10nm process.
This is interesting