China's SMIC (28nm) mass produces Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor | Solid State Technology

[Martian]

Since EUV (ie. extreme ultraviolet lithography) technology is not yet ready, 28nm is currently the most cost-effective node. This means China's SMIC now has the 28nm technology to compete in the market at the best price-point per transistor.

Reference. 28nm: The Last Node of Moore's Law | EETimes
"After the 28nm node, we can continue to make transistors smaller, but not cheaper."

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SMIC begins mass production of Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor in Beijing | Solid State Technology

"The successful production of 28nm Snapdragon products in Beijing represents an important step for SMIC’s 28nm technology."

 

[Martian]

Business is booming at SMIC.

IC design houses allocating 28/40nm orders to UMC, SMIC | DigiTimes

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Manufacturing capacity need drove SMIC's LFoundry deal | EETimes Europe

 

[Martian]

China's SMIC is the world's fifth-largest foundry with over $2 billion in annual sales.

Figure 1 ranks the top 13 IC foundries (pure-play and IDM) by foundry sales in 2015. | IC Insights

 

[Martian]

Manufacturing a CPU (such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425) is far more complex than a memory chip.

A CPU is very complex architecturally (see TSMC 16nm CPU below). In contrast, a memory chip is comprised of simple building blocks. Thus, a 28nm CPU is a much more significant achievement than a 28nm memory chip.

In conclusion, China's SMIC has reached the apex of 28nm production by successfully manufacturing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 CPU in mass volume.

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Take a close look at each individual die (or "chip") on the wafer. It resembles a small city. There are various structures on each die. This is an example of a complex CPU design.
Picture source: TSMC announces first 16nm FinFET results, unveils 10nm roadmap | ExtremeTech
TSMC writes: “Silicon results on 16FF show the ‘big’ Cortex-A57 processor achieving 2.3GHz for sustained mobile peak performance.”

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This is a Samsung 30nm memory wafer. Each die (or "chip") has the hallmark simplistic structure of memory.
Picture source: Samsung intros 64-Gbit MLC NAND chip | EDN
"South Korea-based semiconductor technology giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. today announced that it has developed what it claims is the world's first 64-Gbit multi level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chip, using 30-nm process technology."