MediaTek’s push towards improving its mobile SoC offerings has yielded some rather impressive results, and products such as the company’s Dimensity-series chipsets have proven that it has what it takes to compete with Qualcomm’s heavy-hitting silicon. With that in mind, MediaTek alongisde TSMC recently announced that both companies have developed a MediaTek-branded chip using the latter’s 3nm technology.
This isn’t the first collaboration between the two companies however, who have worked together in recent years. Joe Chen, President of MediaTek states:
“We are committed to our vision of using the world’s most advanced technology to create cutting edge products that improve our lives in meaningful ways… TSMC’s consistent and high-quality manufacturing capabilities enable MediaTek to fully demonstrate its superior design in flagship chipsets, offering the highest performance and quality solutions to our global customers and enhancing the user experience in the flagship market.”
MediaTek adds that using TSMC’s 3nm process technology allows for upgrades in terms of performance, power, and yield, as well as platform support for both high performance computing and mobile app usage. It also offers as much as 18% speed improvement at same power, or 32% power reduction at same speed, and approximately 60% increase in logic density when compared to TSMC’s N5 process. Cliff Hou, Senior Vice President of Europe and Asia Sales at TSMC states:
“This collaboration between MediaTek and TSMC on MediaTek’s Dimensity SoC means the power of industry’s most advanced semiconductor process technology can be as accessible as the smartphone in your pocket… Throughout the years, we have worked closely with MediaTek to bring numerous significant innovations to the market and are honored to continue our partnership into the 3nm generation and beyond.“
MediaTek hasn’t slowed down its operations this year – a couple of months ago, the company unveiled its new Dimensity 6000 series platform, headlined by the Dimensity 6100+. Built on a 6nm process, the Dimensity 6100+ features two Arm Cortex-A76 big cores and six Arm Cortex-A55 efficiency cores, support for AI-powered cameras, 10-bit displays, as well as support for higher resolution 108-megapixel camera sensors.
The company also collaborated with NVIDIA to develop new AI-powered software for vehicles, with the goal of creating a “smart cabin” for drivers and passengers. This collaboration will enable MediaTek to develop automotive SoCs, which will in turn integrate a new NVIDIA GPU “chiplet” with support for NVIDIA AI and graphics IP.
Going back to the new 3nm chip, users can expect to see MediaTek’s upcoming SoC in devices around the second half of 2024. Given that rival manufacturers such as Qualcomm are continuously pushing for improved performance in their chips (as seen with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2), it should be very interesting to see how the competition intensifies during the months ahead.
