Korean Media: The Competitiveness of China's Chip Manufacturing Technology Is Rapidly Rising — Leading Chinese Companies Claim Their Latest Process "Surpasses Intel"

The largest Chinese wafer foundry (semiconductor subcontract manufacturing) producing this chip has successfully achieved a narrower wiring pitch than Intel's latest chips. However, analysts believe that although there have been breakthroughs in numerical measurements, there remains a gap of 4 to 5 years compared to Intel, TSMC, and Samsung Electronics in terms of actual performance, production costs, and other aspects.

On the 17th, U.S.-based semiconductor analysis firm SemiAnalysis conducted a dissection and analysis of the latest smartphone chip developed by Chinese companies. The results showed that the metal wiring pitch of China’s “N+3” process measures 32.5 nanometers (nm), about 10% narrower than Intel’s 18A process (36nm) used in its latest PC central processing unit (CPU), "Black Panther Lake." Upon release of these figures, online claims emerged asserting that "China has surpassed Intel."

Just narrower wiring pitch… the integration density as a core metric reaches only half the level

Experts unanimously agree that judging process technology solely based on wiring pitch is unreasonable. A more reliable indicator when comparing semiconductor process levels is the number of transistors that can be packed per square millimeter (㎟, roughly a few hundredths the size of a fingernail tip). Transistors are the fundamental units of semiconductors responsible for turning electrical signals on and off to perform computations; the higher the transistor density within the same area, the greater the chip’s performance and energy efficiency.

According to this standard, China’s N+3 process achieves an integration density of approximately 125 million transistors per square millimeter (estimated value), comparable to TSMC’s 6nm (N6) process. Although the process is named "N+3" and Chinese companies describe it as a 5nm-class product, its actual integration density is closer to 6nm. Analyst Rajesh Krishnamurthy from market research firm TechInsights stated: "N+3 is essentially an extension of the previous 7nm process and lags significantly behind TSMC and Samsung’s 5nm processes."

The gap becomes even larger when compared to the world’s most advanced processes. TSMC’s improved 3nm process (N3P) packs 224 million transistors per square millimeter, Samsung’s 3nm process (SF3) contains 190 million, and Intel’s 18A boasts 238 million. TSMC’s newly mass-produced 2nm process (N2) features 313 million transistors per square millimeter—2.5 times higher than China’s N+3 integration density.

The primary reason for this disparity lies in differences in equipment. TSMC, Samsung, and Intel utilize EUV (extreme ultraviolet) equipment, which precisely etches circuits onto wafers (semiconductor substrates). Due to U.S. export controls, Chinese firms cannot purchase such equipment and must instead rely on older DUV (deep ultraviolet) tools to achieve similar results. Consequently, they must adopt "multi-patterning" techniques requiring up to 5–6 repeated etching steps for the same circuit pattern, leading to longer processing times and significantly increased production costs per wafer.

In chip performance, still lagging 4–5 years behind Apple, MediaTek, and others

The latest chip produced using China’s cutting-edge process, the "Kirin 9030," shows meaningful progress compared to its predecessor: CPU core count has increased to 12–14, and GPU (graphics processing unit) performance has improved by up to 79%. For the first time in smartphone chips, hardware-accelerated ray tracing (a technology enabling realistic images through calculation of light reflection and refraction) has been integrated.

Yet, the performance gap with global leaders remains substantial. SemiAnalysis’s analysis reveals that the top-performing CPU core of the Kirin 9030 is 57% slower in absolute performance than Apple’s M1 chip launched in 2020. GPU performance analysis indicates it trails behind the latest flagship chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek by a factor of 2.4 to 3.2. SemiAnalysis assessed the overall performance level of the Kirin 9030 to be equivalent to that of flagship chips released in 2021–2022.

Industry insiders noted: "Although there remain gaps in manufacturing processes and chip performance, Chinese companies are pushing the limits of older-generation equipment despite U.S. government restrictions on equipment exports. While some may exaggerate, the fact that China’s foundry technology competitiveness is rapidly improving is something worth taking seriously."

Source: Chosun Ilbo

Original article: toutiao.com/article/1868217741681803/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s).