Qualcomm could source all of its Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chips from Samsung

Several reports have implied Qualcomm will use TSMC's N4P node for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, an assertion tacitly confirmed by its recent Geekbench showing. According to an alleged benchmark score, the Apple A17 Bionic bested it by 47%. However, if an industry insider is accurate, the situation will get a lot more interesting with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.

Twitter user @MappleGold says Qualcomm may rely on Samsung Foundry's 3 nm node (likely 3GAP) for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. This goes against an earlier report which stated it would dual-source the SoC from TSMC and Samsung after ditching Intel 20A entirely, presumably because Intel 20A was not much of an external node and optimized for desktop/laptop chips and not mobile APs.

Despite the debacle with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Snapdragon 888, Qualcomm may be forced back to Samsung Foundry for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 due to issues at TSMC. Apple has booked a significant portion of TSMC's 3 nm capacity (N3B and N3E) for its A and M series of chips. TSMC's compatriot MediaTek is said to have called dibs on the rest, and the situation is unlikely to improve anytime soon.

The insider further adds that the Samsung Foundry samples that Qualcomm has received were "surprising". The GAAFET advantage, combined with new Nuvia cores, could finally give Qualcomm to beat its long-standing rival. Then there's the 'Dream Team Chip' aka Exynos 2500, to worry about, too, which will also be manufactured on the same node.

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