TSMC and Apple have had a very close relationship for years. The Taiwanese giant, which is in the process of opening a new manufacturing line in the United States thanks to this relationship, is responsible for producing some of the most important parts of the phones and other devices of the Californian firm. Among them, TSMC manufactures the iPhone processors. Exclusively for several generations.
The semiconductor crisis is hitting the entire market equally, and that includes an Apple that is already prioritizing the manufacture of iPhones over iPads in order to have enough stock for Christmas. And according to The Information, it seems that the same crisis will cause problems in the future iPhone 14 of 2022. Problems with your processor.
Maybe we’ll have an iPhone with a 5-nanometer chip again in 2022
In TSMC’s roadmap, producing 3-nanometer processors was set for sometime between 2022 and 2023, and everything pointed to the technology It would be the one that would be used for the Apple A16 Bionic of the future iPhone 14. However, that required that by this year we already had 4 nanometer processors in circulation and this has not happened.
Both the current Apple A15 Bionic and the competition we will see arriving soon (with the Snapdragon 898 as the main weapon of the competition) are arriving at 5 nanometers, stretching this stage of chip production technology even further. Nevertheless, TSMC still had 3 nanometers in mind for next year but a new report released by The Information indicates that this will not be the case.
TSMC would not have its 3 nanometer technology ready for the next year, thus ruling out the iPhone 14 but also for its competition, since the contract for the future high-end Snapdragon of 2022 could have fallen on the Taiwanese side instead of on Samsung. But also, it seems that the 4 nanometers hang by a thread at this moment, so we could have a 5 nanometer brain again for the iPhone 14 next year if nothing changes in today’s semiconductor world jam. Or if nothing changes in time.
TSMC has a hard time reaching even 4 nanometers in 2022, and Samsung has postponed its 3 nanometers to 2023
If this intermediate transition could finally be made, the iPhone 14 would benefit from having 4 nanometer technology for the manufacture of the Apple A16 Bionic, and that could mean an increase in power close to 11%, and around 22% of energy savings. At the same time, the Apple A16 Bionic could increase the number of transistors by 6%. But this will happen, we repeat, if finally the 4 nanometers are ready in time.
This delay in the evolution of TSMC’s technology would be a relief to its competitors, however. Mainly for Samsung, which could cut some of the distance that separates Koreans and Taiwanese for the next generations. The latest from Samsung, however, spoke that its 3 nanometers were also delayed until 2023, so it looks like an interesting duel between both companies for the next season.
Via | The Information