Apple's partner in chipmaking, TSMC, says it will be ready to begin volume production of its 3nanometer chip process in the second half of this year, putting it on track to supply Apple with the next-generation technology in 2023.
"We expect the ramp of N3 to be driven by both HPC [high performance computing] and smartphone applications," said Wei during an April 14 earnings conference call. "We continue to see a high level of customer engagement at N3 and expect more new tape-outs for N3 for the first year as compared with N5 and N7."
According to industry sources, TSMC is expected to process 30,000-35,000 wafers a month.
According to a report from July 2021, Apple will launch an iPad this year with a processor from TSMC. The process will first be used by Apple in the iPad, although it doesn't say which model or when it will launch.
It would be the second time in recent years that Apple has introduced new chip technology in an iPad before using it in a flagship phone. The A14 Bionic chip was first introduced in the fourth-generation iPad Air.
Apple is expected to release the majority of its devices with 3nm chips in 2023, including Macs with M3 chips and the A17 chips in the iPhone 15 models.
Faster speeds and longer battery life can be achieved by moving to a more advanced process. The technology can increase processing performance by 10% to 15% and reduce power consumption by 25% to 30%.
Some M3 chips have up to four dies, which could allow up to a 40-core processor. Apple's M1 chip has an 8-core processor, while the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips have 10-cores.
N3E, an enhanced version of N3, is on its way to volume production in the second half of 2022. The N3 family would be further extended with the N3E process.
The next-generation N2 (2nm) process development is on track, and the foundry expects to get ready for risk production at the end of the decade.
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