Apple chipmaking partner TSMC is currently testing pilot production of its 3nm chip fabricating process, known as N3. The news comes from Taiwanese supply chain news source DigiTimes.
The report citing the ever-popular “unnamed sources,” says TSMC expects to move to volume production by the fourth quarter of 2022 and will begin shipping 3nm chips to customers like Apple and Intel in the first quarter of 2023.
The 3nm process should provide some impressive performance and power efficiency advancements, which would lead to faster speeds and improved battery life on future iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
The first devices that are likely to use the new 3nm chips in 2023 will include iPhone 15 models with an A17 chip and Apple silicon Macs with M3 chips. (The names of the chips are tentative, of course.)
The Information’s Wayne Ma last month said that some M3 chips will have up to four dies, which means the chips could have up to a 40-core CPU. The M1 chip has 8-cores, while the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips each boast 10-cores.
Apple is expected to use chips based on TSMC’s N4 process, which is another iteration of its 5nm process, in Macs with M2 chips and iPhone 14 models next year.
