Apple pulled off a nice coup by seizing all of TSMC's production for chips engraved in 3 nm. But as the Taiwanese founder strengthens its manufacturing capabilities, the door will open to new customers.
The A17 Pro chips in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, as well as the M3 chips in the latest Macs, are engraved in 3 nm. This engraving gives them better performance in terms of autonomy and computing capacities, and this is what allows Apple to maintain a competitive advantage over Intel or Qualcomm.
TSMC at the heart of global demand for 3nm chips
Last year, the Californian manufacturer made arrangements with TSMC to have available all of the chips engraved in 3 nm, a process that only the Taiwan company can produce in large volumes. But the etching process is increasingly mastered by the semiconductor giant; this is why other companies like Nvidia, AMD, MediaTek or even Qualcomm will be able to place orders for 3nm chipsaccording to the TrendForce firm which cites several Asian sources.
If Apple benefited from the N3B process last year, these new customers will be entitled to the second generation of the process (N3E). Qualcomm could well take advantage of it for the future Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, while MediaTek would use it for its next Dimensity 9400 – knowing that the current versions of these two systems-on-a-chip (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 9300) are engraved in 4nm.
Apple will obviously not be left out. We therefore expect 3nm A18 Pro chips for the iPhone 16 Pro, as well as an Ultra variant of the M3 which would equip the Mac Studio expected this summer. What about the Mac Pro? Mystery and gumdrop, the tower is not mentioned. More generally, it is a safe bet that 3nm chips will invade many high-end devices that will be released in 2024.
For an electronic chip, finer engraving is synonymous with increased performance; we can thus place more transistors on the same chip surface. Power consumption also improves, since smaller transistors consume less. Furthermore, heat dissipation is easier to manage, as the heat generated per unit is generally less.
Read Here is Fab 18, the most advanced factory in the world which builds the chips for future iPhones
? To not miss any news from 01net, follow us on Google News and WhatsApp.