2024-09-19 14:45:02
www.extremetech.com
Apple’s newest iPhones began arriving on doorsteps around the country Friday morning, and they’re packing chips made with TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process. Apple was reportedly looking to jump to TSMC 2nm for next year’s phones, but since TSMC likely won’t start 2nm production until late in the year, a respected analyst is now saying Apple will be forced to use 3nm chips once again in 2025 before moving to 2nm in 2026.
The iPhone 16 family of phones all use a chip called A18, which is made by TSMC. Both chips are made on a second-generation 3nm process, and appear to be the same aside from a binned version used in the non-Pro phones. The process Apple is using for the iPhone 16 is very likely TSMC N3E, and according to famed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, it’s expected to move to N3P for the iPhone 17 lineup in 2025. Looking ahead to 2026, Apple will once again be first in line for TSMC’s 2nm chips as well. But due to their reported high cost, Kuo states only the Pro phones will get 2nm chips in 2026.
TSMC is expected to enter 2nm production in 2025, but not early enough in the year to have chips ready for Apple by September.
Credit: TSMC
Although this is speculation, the timelines do make sense. TSMC has slotted 2nm into 2025 on its roadmap, but that could mean any time in the year. As you may recall, it had put 3nm in “2022” and then announced it on Dec. 29, right before New Year’s. We didn’t see those chips arrive in the iPhone until September 2023, so we can expect a similar—if not longer—timeline for Apple having 2nm iPhone chips.
The timespan from announcement to having millions of chips ready for Apple might be longer for 2nm than for 3nm because the transition will be a huge step forward for TSMC. For its N2 process, TSMC will be moving away from FinFET to gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet transistors for the first time, so growing pains are expected despite its engineering pedigree. It’s also been previously reported that TSMC might have to delay 2nm production to 2026 due to a variety of factors, but we’ll find out if that is true next year.
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