Thanks to Samsung's superior 14 nm FinFET architecture, the South Korean phone giant has been able to build several partnerships with the likes of Apple and Qualcomm. Now, it has been rumored that the tech firm will be making its GPUs for leading graphic chips maker NVIDIA. Currently, NVIDIA's Maxwell architecture is based on the 20 nm architecture, with its latest product being the Tegra X1 SoC.
According to Korea Times, 14 nm FinFET employs the use of the latest 3D transistors technology, which is the same one used in Samsung's Exynos 7420 'system on a chip'. The aforementioned chipset is found in Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. NVIDIA might be looking to partner up with Samsung because TSMC will be unable to provide NVIDIA with chips manufactured on the superior architecture.
Currently, TSMC's 20 nm node is suffering greatly, and it appears that the semiconductor manufacturing will not be able to start production of its 16 nm architecture until this summer. While 16 nm is far superior compared to the 20 nm process, Samsung's lithographic process currently remains the reigning champion in that particular department.
NVIDIA is currently engaged in a lawsuit with Samsung, where the leading manufacturer of desktop and laptop graphics processors has already received a favorable hearing during the initial ruling at Markman hearing.
WCCFtech reports that David Shannon, who is the Chief Administrative Officer and Secretary of NVIDIA, has stated that:
"We are very pleased with the outcome of the ruling, in which claim constructions favorable to NVIDIA will be applied to six out of seven disputed claims when the judge considers the question of Samsung's and Qualcomm's infringement. This further strengthens the patents we have asserted, and we look forward to a full hearing in late June."
If the partnership rumor turns out to be true, then Samsung's 14 nm FinFET chips will most likely be used to roll out NVIDIA's Pascal GPUs, which are set to be released in 2016.
