Nearing the end of 2022, more details about Apple’s next-gen devices, expected in 2023, are beginning to emerge. One of Apple’s biggest suppliers, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), is rumoured to be throwing a party sometime soon to mark the beginning of commercial manufacturing of 3nm chips at its facility.
This is a significant first step toward Apple adopting a 3nm process, a technology on which the corporation has never previously relied.
This claim comes to us courtesy of MacRumors and DIGITIMES Asia, but it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, given rumours and stories have been circulating for quite some time about Apple’s collaboration with TSMC to develop a new 3nm process.
It is still unknown what kinds of devices will make use of the new technology, though it is highly likely to debut in Apple’s forthcoming iPhone Pro model, which is expected to debut sometime before the end of next year. It could also make its way into some of its computer hardware.
TSMC is increasing its presence in the American market and has announced the construction of two new manufacturing facilities in the state of Arizona. CEO Tim Cook announced new facilities and a joint effort to manufacture chips in the United States at the beginning of the month.
The two Arizona factories will produce chips at both the 3nm and 4nm nodes. Neither TSMC nor Apple has said which items will make use of the processors, though.
The present A16 Bionic CPU is fairly good, but Apple has just stated that it must exclude some graphical upgrades for the chip since it does not satisfy its criteria. Apple reportedly wanted to upgrade the GPU on the processor, but abandoned those plans after discovering the change would cause the device to use too much power and run too hot.
This might be a huge year for iPhones, with the rumoured transition to USB-C connectors, so Apple will hopefully avoid any problems like this with its impending 3nm CPUs.
