The world’s top chipmaker Samsung Electronics Co. announced that it would be ramping up output from fourth-generation 14-nanometer (nm) process (14LPU) and the third-generation 10nm process (10LPU), a move that will help the company maintain unrivalled lead in the chip industry with rising demand for high-performance chips for mobile and smart consumer devices.

Samsung Electronics has begun mass-producing chips using 14-nanometer fine technology last year and further raised the bar by becoming in October the first to employ 10-nanometer, which previously had been considered the manufacturing end for the silicon. Nanometer technology is synonym for chip generation. The smaller the number, the more transistors could fit on the chip and making it more powerful.

The company held the Samsung Foundry Forum for its semiconductor consignment production clients and partners at its Device Solutions America headquarters in the U.S. on Thursday (local time) and announced that it was expanding production from its next-generation fabs that would allow greater yield of power-saving high-performance chips.

Process design kits for 14LPU and 10LPU process technologies will be available in the second quarter of next year.

The fourth-generation14LPU delivers higher performance at the same power and design compared to the previous third-generation 14nm process (14LPC), and it is suitable for devices requiring high-performance and compute-intensive applications. The third-generation 10LPU offers the same performance level as the previous generations 10LPE and 10LPP while using smaller area.

Samsung Electronics shares closed Thursday at 1,616,000 won, down 27,000 won or 1.64 percent from the previous session.

By Lee Dong-in

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