Apple will be making changes in the A17 Bionic chip to be used in the Cupertino Firm’s iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max handsets later this year. The changes will take place in 2024, says a recently posted rumor. The rumor comes courtesy of a Weibo user that claims to be an integrated circuit expert boasting 25 years of experience with Intel Pentium processors.
The A17 Bionic is widely expected to be the first Apple chip to use TSMC’s 3nm fabrication process, resulting in performance and efficiency improvements over the 5nm technique the company used for the A14, A15, and A16 chips.
The initial version of Apple’s A17 Bionic chip will likely be fabricated using TSMC’s N3B process. However, the Cupertino firm is reportedly planning to use N3E for the chip sometime next year. The cost-cutting move could result in reduced efficiency.
N3E is a more accessible node that will likely be used by many of TSMC’s other clients. N3E has fewer EUV layers and a lower transistor density than N3B, which while it can result in efficiency tradeoffs, can actually provide improved performance.
A change like this coming in the middle of the iPhone 15’s life cycle could irritate iPhone users. Instead, Apple may hold off using the N3E version of the chip in 2024’s iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models.
The Weibo user that posted the A17 Bionic rumor claimed earlier this year that the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro’s USB-C port and cables will be equipped with an authenticator chip like the one used in Apple’s Lightning port and connector. Other sources later corroborated that rumor.