"Although TSMC began mass production at 16nm FF Plus (FinFET Plus) as late as the second quarter of 2015, the long preparation has helped the company to slash chip power consumption by 50% against the previous 16nm FFC (FinFET Compact). The production time is also 50% less compared to the 20nm technology," says Alex Yang, industry analyst with MIC.

"Besides, TSMC provides production-proven reference flows on its Open Innovation Platform to help IC vendors design chipsets with the process technology. By contrast, Samsung boasts that its 14nm LPE (Low-power Early) can reduce power consumption by 35% and production time by 30% while improving performance by 20%, compared to the previous 20nm technology."

Based on its success at the 20nm technology node, TSMC has an edge over Samsung in developing 16/14nm process technologies. In TSMC's annual technology forum held in May 2015, the company unveiled a new version of 16nm FFC technology, offering the ultra-low-power operation at a supply voltage of 0.55 volts. At present, over ten customers have completed 16nm tape-out with TSMC.