Recently, it has been revealed that Apple plans to use TSMC’s 3nm chips on the iPhone 16 series in 2024.
The news comes from a report from Morgan Stanley published by the Economic Daily, which talked about TSMC’s 3nm expansion plan. TSMC, the chip maker, plans to reduce its cutting-edge node production capacity from 80,000 wafers per month to 60,000, the report said. Much of it will be used by Apple in its 2024 iPhone chips.
That’s because TSMC has several different kinds of 3nm processes ready for customers like Apple, each iteration better than the previous one. Assuming the company’s plans to launch four new iPhones remain unaffected, the lower-priced iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus could use a first-generation 3nm mass-produced SoC, while the “Pro” series could jump to a more power-efficient model. second-generation process.
It is rumored that Apple will use TSMC’s second-generation 3-nanometer process to mass-produce M3 and A17 Bionic. These two chips are expected to be launched next year, but Apple may retain the new manufacturing process of A18 Bionic until 2024. Of course, it all depends on whether TSMC can continue to produce enough wafers per month without running into production hurdles, as customers such as Qualcomm and MediaTek also want to use the technology for their own mobile chips.
