News
Samsung Forms Task For Providing Packaging Solutions
Samsung Electronics has established a semiconductor packaging task force (TF). Supposed to work word-for-word under the CEO, which will enhance cooperation with customers in the packaging field for foundry business.
Samsung also announced in April this year that it will work on 2 nm by 2025. Before this, Samsung also informed in April that it would start to work on the 3nm chips 3GAE (3 nm-class gate-all-around early) fabrication process, starting in mid-2022, and it did.
Recently, The company’s DS Sales division, or TF has constituted in mid-June antecedently for this purpose. This team will report directly to DS Sales Division with CEO Kyung Kye-Hyun.
The Team & Its Goal:
- System Testing and Package (TSP) engineers from the DS division.
- Researchers from the R&D Semiconductor Center.
- Managers from the company’s memory division and foundry.
The goal would be to accomplish advanced packaging solutions to improve the cooperative relationship with customers.
Manufacturing, plans & Expectations:
The chipmaking tech is extremely difficult as to put a complex process that requires precision, clean environments, expensive factory equipment, and time. It takes GlobalFoundries three months on average to engrave and transform mirror-smooth silicon wafers into layered semiconductors and not to mention the lower the nm(nanometer) more difficult it becomes to fit the no. of transistors in a wafer-thin silicon layer.
So, a lower nm transistor means less power is required for it to work. When you look at all the transistors in a CPU, lower power consumption makes a huge difference overall. It makes your processor more power-efficient than a higher nm processor with larger transistors.
The CEO’s decision shows the importance of advanced semiconductor packaging technologies. The packaging procedure includes cutting a wafer that has met the end-to-end process in the form of a semiconductor or its wiring. Known as the “primary process” in this business.
Global semiconductor giants like Intel and TSMC are richly investing in cutting-edge packaging. Intel and TSMC account for 32% and 27% of total global investment in state-of-the-art packaging by 2022, respectively.
According to market research firm Yole Development data, Samsung Electronics ranks fourth after ASE, a Taiwanese outsourcing equipment manufacturing company.
Intel introduced a brand of 3D packaging called “Foveros” in 2018 and announced that it would apply the technology to various new products. It also devised a method of assembling each part of the product by turning it into a tile shape.
A chip called “Lakefield,” released in 2020, was made this way and installed in Samsung Electronics laptops.
TSMC also recently decided to manufacture the latest product from AMD, its biggest customer, using this technology. Intel and TSMC have been persistent sufficiently to establish a 3D packaging research center in Japan and operate it from June 2.
Meanwhile, Samsung will imply an advanced GAAFET (gate-all-around field-effect transistor) architecture compared to its archrival TSMC’s FinFET (fin field-effect transistor) fabrication method.
Samsung doesn’t want to lag and is working hard in this market by launching its 3D stacking technology, “X-Cube,” in 2020.
Choi Si-young, president of the Founding Business Division of Samsung Electronics, said they were developing a “3.5D packaging” at Hot Chips 2021 last June.
The recent CXL-based memory development by Samsung and collaborations with IBM, Intel, Montage Technology, AMD & others has already paved the way for Samsung in this regard.
This will conclude if this Samsung task force makes Samsung reduce the gap with its rivals in the field. Korean conglomerate’s technological advancement has given it an edge, and the current will it is showing to secure the leading position to its only rivals in this business, namely USA’s Intel & Taiwanese TSMC, could make its plan a success.
Sources & References:
The Korean brand – Samsung has recently announced its two mid-range Galaxy smartphones – Galaxy A55 5G and Galaxy A35 5G. A new benchmark listing has a spot for Samsung’s affordable smartphone, Galaxy35 5G.
Samsung is now gearing up for its next affordable Galaxy smartphone, the M35 5G, as the reports are unvunveilhey have found a new benchmark listing for Samsung the Galaxy M35 5G.
The smartphone has been spotted with the model number as an identification code – SM-M356B on the Geekbench 6.2.2 database. Not only this, but it also confirmed the presence of 6GB of RAM and Android 14 OS. The chipset also came to know which is the latest Exynos 1380.
The codename for the motherboard is also mentioned, which is ‘s5e8835.’ The reports say that it has scored 656 and 1967 points in performance scores on the benchmarking platform. Exynos 1380 is the latest chipset of the Korean brand, which is a 5 nm processor. It consists of 4 Cortex A78 cores, which clock at 2.4GHz, and 4 Cortex A55 cores, which clock at 2.0GHz. It is coupled with a Mali g68 MP5 GPU. It also has an AI Engine.
This also offers connectivity options, which include the latest Bluetooth version 5.3 and Wi-Fi 802.11 ax with three bands. It supports a camera resolution of at least 200MP for capturing images, and for video recording, there is support for up to 30fps 4K recording. The storage supported is UFS v3.1, and RAM will be of the LPDDR4x/5 type.
Samsung has recently debuted its two smartphones, Galaxy A55, and Galaxy A35; the Galaxy A35 5G smartphone is powered by Exynos 1380 chipset. From this perspective, Galaxy M35 5G could be a variant of Galaxy A35.
At the moment, no specs and features of the device have been revealed or leaked. Still, since Galaxy M series smartphones usually have a bit higher battery power of at least 6000mAh, the forthcoming Galaxy M35 5G smartphone also arrives with the same battery power.
Firmware
Verizon rolls out the March 2024 security patch update for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 devices
Verizon has rolled out the March 2024 security patch update for the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 devices. Earlier, these devices had received the same update outside the US, but now they are gradually expanding to the US.
The Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 are spotted getting new updates with the firmware version numbers F926USQS5HXBD and F711USQS6HXBD, respectively. It is worth noticing the update is currently available for the devices locked to Verizon, but it will soon be available on more carriers.
For your information, the latest update for Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 doesn’t bring any significant changes, but as it is the latest security patch, it will provide some internal fixes to maintain the security of the devices.
If you are getting some other issues from the last update, you should also update the device to the latest update, as it may also address some issues. Along with the update, other improvements may also be made to enhance the overall performance of the devices.
Suppose you use the Galaxy Z Fold 3 or Flip 3 device in the US. In that case, you can update the device to the latest version by simply going to the system settings and then to the software update. If you haven’t received the update, you should wait for some time, as it may arrive in the next few days.
Firmware
Samsung rolls out the March 2024 security patch update for the Galaxy S23 FE devices in the US
Samsung has rolled out the March 2024 security patch to almost all devices but still needs to complete the update distribution to all eligible devices. So, gradually expanding the update to remaining devices, the company has started rolling out the update for the Galaxy S23 FE in the US.
Notably, the Galaxy S23 FE devices are getting a new update in the carrier-unlocked version with the firmware version number S711U1UES2BXBF. The update has already been rolled out to almost all carriers, including AT&T, Bluegrass Cellular, C-Spire, Cellular South, Comcast, Cricket, DISH, MetroPCS, T-Mobile, Tracfone, US Cellular, Verizon, and Xfinity Mobile.
According to the official changelog, the March 2024 security patch is one of the standard maintenance updates that provides some internal improvements for the device, and there will be no visible changes available. In other words, users may experience some improvement in the functioning of devices, but it doesn’t particularly bring any specific changes for the device.
Going to the details, the March 2024 security patch includes more than 40 fixes, 37 of which are provided by Google and address the issues found in the Android OS, while 9 more features are introduced by Samsung that enhance the performance of Galaxy devices exclusively.
Suppose you are using the Galaxy S23 FE in the US. In that case, you can update the devices to the latest version by following the simple steps: first, go to the system settings, tap on the software update, and tap on the download and install button; if it shows a new update available, tap on the download button.