To Remove Confusion in the Market
Samsung Electronics has decided to accurately disclose the circuit width of its DRAM products in a bid to get technology competition started among chipmakers.
Circuit width is considered to be a major measure of a semiconductor company's technical skills. This is because the narrower a DRAM’s circuit width is, the higher its power efficiency is.
A common industry practice has been not to disclose the exact circuit width of DRAM products. As DRAM processes entered the 10nm range in 2016, DRAM makers implicitly agreed to refrain from engaging in overheated technological competition and marketing. In the 10nm process level, it takes two to three years for chipmakers to narrow the circuit width by even one nanometer. This means the practical benefits of technology marketing are not significant.
For this reason, DRAM makers have not specified the circuit width of their DRAMs over the past five to six years. They dubbed the first-generation DRAMs in the 10nm node level, which were launched in 2016, as 1x, 2nd-generation products launched in 2018 as 1y and 3rd-generation products launched in the same year as 1z. In early 2021, fourth-generation 1a came out.
In the semiconductor market, 1x is assumed to be in the high 10nm range, 1znm in the middle 10nm range and 1znm in the low 10nm range.
The current industry practice makes it difficult to figure out the differences between Samsung Electronics' 1z DRAM and SK Hynix's 1z DRAM in terms of circuit width.
Samsung Electronics has decided to depart from the industry’s practice and accurately specify the circuit width of its DRAMs, a move intended to express a strong confidence in its DRAM technology and get rid of confusions in the market.
“Samsung Electronics is going to mass-produce 1a DRAM in the second half of 2021,” the company said, specifying the circuit width of the product as 14nm.
Samsung Electronics was the first to start mass-production of first-generation 10nm(1x) DRAMs in early 2016. The global semiconductor giant has been ahead of competitors such as SK Hynix and Micron by six months to a year. Even until the development of the 1z DRAM in 2019, there was no change in this trend. Even if Samsung Electronics did not disclose the node level of its DRAMs in detail, nobody denied that it had the best technology in the DRAM sector.
Things have changed since the 4th-generation 10nm(1a) DRAMs. Micron, the world’s third-largest DRAM maker, made a surprise announcement in January that it developed and mass-produced an 1a DRAM for the first time in the world. Industry watchers said Samsung Electronics was outclassed by Micron.
High-ranking executives of Samsung Electronics' DS Business Division are dissatisfied with the story. The division’s officials believe that the 1x, 1y and 1z DRAMs they produce perform far better than those of their competitors.
Many experts are skeptical about whether Micron's 1a DRAM can be regarded as a real 4th-generation product. They suspect that Micron exaggerated its technological level. Although Micron announced the development and mass-production of 1a DRAMs, it has not released any photos of its product.