Samsung Foundry is still in the game, and Intel hasn't dropped out yet.
They're both trailing TSMC at the moment, but not by a whole lot more than in TSMC has trailed Intel in the (somewhat) recent past. Samsung allegedly will have 3nm in production early this year while TSMC 3nm has slipped to late this year. Remains to be seen how that actually ramps, but barring a significant problem for either, they will be close.
TSMC I think has tended to have an edge at the same node size name recently, although that can flip. Samsung will have GAA while TSMC will be on FinFET for example, so the 3nm battle will be interesting.
I don't think TSMC has quite emerged as the sole survivor just yet. Although it's also not clear that the industry trend for consolidation and competition gradually dropping out has changed to a more stable equilibrium.
> Samsung allegedly will have 3nm in production early this year while TSMC 3nm has slipped to late this year.
You're making the mistake of taking their process names at face value.
Samsung 3nm is less dense than TSMC's 5nm which has been shipping since 2020. They are more than 2 years behind, as they still haven't matched TSMC 5nm even when their new 3nm launches.
> You're making the mistake of taking their process names at face value.
You're missing where I said in the next paragraph you snipped off that TSMC has been ahead at the "node size name".
> Samsung 3nm is less dense than TSMC's 5nm which has been shipping since 2020. They are more than 2 years behind, as they still haven't matched TSMC 5nm even when their new 3nm launches.
For high performance logic, drive currents, leakage, switching power, metal resistance, etc can all be equally or more important than density.
They're both trailing TSMC at the moment, but not by a whole lot more than in TSMC has trailed Intel in the (somewhat) recent past. Samsung allegedly will have 3nm in production early this year while TSMC 3nm has slipped to late this year. Remains to be seen how that actually ramps, but barring a significant problem for either, they will be close.
TSMC I think has tended to have an edge at the same node size name recently, although that can flip. Samsung will have GAA while TSMC will be on FinFET for example, so the 3nm battle will be interesting.
I don't think TSMC has quite emerged as the sole survivor just yet. Although it's also not clear that the industry trend for consolidation and competition gradually dropping out has changed to a more stable equilibrium.