Apple is gearing up to launch iPhone 13 series with an ‘enhanced’ 5nm chipset. While Apple leads the industry — Intel will ship 7nm chips from 2023 — the company is already prepping to announce new iPhones and Macs with 3nm chips.
According to a new report from Digitimes, TSMC, Apple’s main chip supplier, is planning to begin mass production for 3nm chips in the second half of next year. The ‘plan’ falls within Apple’s iPhone release cycle, i.e., towards the end of each year.
This could mean that we could see new Apple devices with 3nm chips starting in 2022. A section of the report reads:
TSMC is on track to move its 3nm process technology to volume production in the second half of 2022 for Apple’s devices, either iPhones or Mac computers, according to industry sources.
It was earlier reported in June that TSMC was looking to manufacture 3nm chips for Apple. The company has found a way to manufacture 3nm and is now looking to provide those chips to Apple. Though it would be interesting to see an iPhone or a Mac with a 3nm chip next year, Apple has other plans.
The company plans to launch the 3nm chip first in the iPad Pro, and then bring it to the 2022 iPhone lineup — the same it did with the 5nm-based A14 Bionic chipset. Nikkei last month reported that we could see an iPad Pro model with a 3nm chip in 2022.
In addition to Apple, TSMC is looking to fabricate CPUs for laptops and data centers based on the 3nm node in a bid to regain the market share that it has lost to AMD in recent years.
As for the iPhone 13 series, Apple is expected to use TSMC’s enhanced 5nm+ node for its A15 Bionic chip. This node should bring about minor power efficiency improvements over the 5nm node on which the M1 and A14 Bionic chips are fabricated.
Would you be interested in buying an Apple device with a 3nm processor? Would you still be interested if it means you’ll have to pay more for the device? Let us know in the comments section down below!
