Apple is preparing to launch the iPhone 13 series with an "improved" 5nm chipset. While Apple leads the industry — Intel will ship 7nm chips from 2023 — the company is likely to announce new iPhones and Macs with 3nm chips next year.
According to a new report from Digitimes, TSMC - Apple's main chip supplier - is planning to start mass production of 3nm chips in the second half of next year. This "plan" is within Apple's iPhone release cycle, which is at the end of each year.
This means we could see new Apple devices with 3nm chips by the end of 2022 – around the same time as the iPhone 14 and a bunch of new Macs. Part of the report reads:
“TSMC is on track to move its 3nm process technology to mass production in the second half of 2022 for Apple devices, iPhones or Mac computers, according to industry sources.”
Previously, it was reported in June that TSMC was looking to produce 3nm chips for Apple. The company has figured out how to make 3nm chips and is now looking to supply those chips to Apple. While it will be interesting to see an iPhone or a Mac with a 3nm chip next year, Apple may have other plans.
The company plans to launch the first 3nm chip on the iPad Pro, and then bring it to the 2022 iPhone series - the same thing it did with the 5nm-based A14 Bionic chipset. Last month, Nikkei reported that we could see an iPad Pro model with a 3nm chip in 2022.
In addition to Apple, TSMC is looking to build CPUs for laptops and datacenters based on the 3nm process to regain market share lost to AMD in recent years.
For the iPhone 13 series, Apple is expected to use TSMC's "improved" 5nm chip for its A15 Bionic chip. This chip will bring small improvements in power efficiency compared to the 5nm chip on which the M1 and A14 Bionic chips are built.
According to iPhoneHacks
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