Industry and Samsung officials said Thursday that Samsung
has agreed with Qualcomm to produce the latter's Snapdragon
S4 chipsets using Samsung?s 28-nanometer technology,
starting from the first half of 2013.
The Korean Times also reported today that the two companies
have agreed in principle on chip production and are now
trying to iron out details.
The partnership could help Samsung strengthen its
capabilities for non-memory chip management. The Korean
technology giant plans to invest more in non-memory chips
this year than in conventional memory chips, possibly
gaining orders from companies that have been traditionally
using chips made by TSMC, such as Nvidia and Texas
Instruments.
Qualcomm's MSM8960 chipsets are currently being used in the
latest smartphones by Samsung, LG Electronics, Motorola and
Taiwan's HTC.
Qualcomm has also designated United Microelectronics Corp.
(UMC) as another supplier with the capacity to help cope
with tight supply of the leading-edge process at TSMC.
Market experts say Samsung is one of the few players that
can threaten TSMC's leadership as Samsung has abundant cash
and top-class memory chip-making technology.
Samsung currently controls near 50 percent of the global
memory chip market.
With the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and
Samsung producing the Qualcomm chipsets, analysts expect
the 28nm supply will improve from early next year.