San Francisco, Jul 14 (IANS): US-based chip maker Qualcomm is giving a contract to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for exclusively manufacturing the next-generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip as well as the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 chips.

Qualcomm gave the contract to manufacture the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chips to Samsung Foundry but an order for the upgraded version of the processor, dubbed Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 was given to TSMC, GizmoChina reported on Thursday, citing a new report by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

While details about the next-generation flagship smartphone processor remain unknown, the company will likely stick to the 4nm node process for the upcoming chips, which is the same used in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 series, the report said.

Samsung's issues with the yield are likely one of the major reasons Qualcomm decided to switch to TSMC.

As per the reports, the yield of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 manufactured by Samsung Foundry is 35 per cent. This means that out of the 100 pieces that are made, only 35 are useful and 65 are defective, the report said.

The South Korean giant recently started production of 3nm chips. It uses the Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistor architecture for power-efficient and performance-enhanced chips.

It is also developing a second-generation 3nm process node that would offer significant improvements across several areas.