Kris Carlon / Android Authority
TL;DR
- MediaTek has announced that a future flagship chip is using a TSMC 3nm process.
- This chip is likely the Dimensity 9400, which is expected to be used in 2025’s phones.
MediaTek is widely expected to announce the Dimensity 9300 flagship chipset in Q4, and it will power some high-end phones in 2024. The chip designer is wasting little time, though, as it’s just announced a key detail about its flagship chip that will power high-end devices in 2025.
MediaTek announced that it’s developed its first chip using a TSMC 3nm process:
MediaTek and TSMC today announced that MediaTek has successfully developed its first chip using TSMC’s leading-edge 3nm technology, taping out MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity system-on-chip (SoC) with volume production expected next year.
The tape-out milestone means that the chip’s design is finished and ready for production. Nevertheless, the company’s quote confirms that this is indeed a flagship Dimensity chip, presumably the Dimensity 9400 if production is only taking place next year.
MediaTek compared the 3nm TSMC process to TSMC’s N5 (5nm) tech, claiming that the new process offers a speed improvement of up to 18% for the same power consumption or a 32% drop in power consumption for the same speed. It adds that the new process brings a ~60% increase in logic density. It’s unclear how the new manufacturing process compares to TSMC’s N4 process used in current flagship chips, though.
MediaTek confirmed that its first flagship processor using TSMC’s 3nm process is set to power phones, tablets, cars, and other devices from the second half of 2024. That would indeed broadly line up with a Dimensity 9400 chip once again. But this also effectively confirms that the upcoming Dimensity 9300, set to be announced in Q4 2023, will stick with TSMC’s 4nm design.
It seems like the Dimensity 9400 wouldn’t be the only Android chip using TSMC’s latest process. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will also be built on a 3nm TSMC process, according to leaker Digital Chat Station.
