Currently, Apple leads the chip industry in terms of lithography, as it was the first company to launch a 5nm chipset, which almost all of you know as the A14 Bionic. Later, the tech giant followed up with the M1, found on the latest Mac models. However, a new report states that Apple wants to be one step ahead of the competition, which is why it ensured all TSMC’s 3nm production.
Initial batch of 3 nm chips guaranteed by Apple, but the report states that TSMC will have to sell several million of them to make a profit
With an earlier report stating that Apple secured 80 percent of TSMC’s 5 nm orders for 2021, UDN says the California-based company took a step ahead of the competition and secured orders for 3 nm chips as well. However, we are likely to see the new chips for iPhone, Mac and iPad arrive in 2022, so there is plenty of time to see what this silicon can do.
So far, TSMC’s experimental production is going according to plan, with around 600,000 processors scheduled to be produced annually, making it 50,000 per month. Mass production could start in 2022, but there is still a small problem. With the amount of investment TSMC has made to produce 3 nm chips for several customers, including Apple, UDN mentions that the company will need to sell at least 300 million processors to make a profit.
It has not been confirmed how many global orders Apple intends to guarantee with TSMC. Still, considering that the iPhone giant sells products in the millions, TSMC can count on its lucrative business partner to cover most of its investment. As for the benefit of 3nm technology, TSMC mentioned earlier that we should expect between 20-25 improvements in the energy efficiency of future processors.
It is also reported that TSMC’s biggest rival in the chip development race, Samsung, is making a leap directly from 5 nm to 3 nm. We don’t know if the Korean giant’s own technology performance and energy efficiency rating will be enough to overcome what TSMC has to offer soon, but we will keep it updated. Next year, Apple’s A15 Bionic will likely be built on TSMC’s N5P architecture, offering a small gain in performance and efficiency over the current generation’s 5 nm node used to make the A14 Bionic M1 silicon.
News source: UDN