Apple adopts a 3nm process for its A17 chip

Exactly a week ago, Apple debuted the iPhone 14 lineup at its “Far Out” event. And while we are still waiting for the first units to arrive, the Cupertino company is already looking forward to the next iPhone, which could be the first smartphone to be powered by a 3nm processor.

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2022 marks the first year when a performance gap between the standard models and the “Pro” ones has been introduced. The latter use the company’s latest A16 chip, while the former - last year’s A15.

Most benchmarks indicate that the A16 is, in fact, more powerful, but the performance bump is rather incremental. Apple itself asserted that the main benefits of the A16 over the A15 will be in their relative power efficiency.

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The reason why the divide between the A16 and A15 chips is not all that significant is the fact that both SoCs are manufactured through the same 5nm process. The A16 uses a more refined process and is sometimes marketed as being “4nm”, but in truth both chipsets have the same technology node.

Next year, this could all change. According to an article by NikkeyAsia, the latest 3nm chipmaking process of TSMC will be first used in Apple’s A17 chip and the M3 processors at the heart of future MacBooks.

The 3nm process will likely be adopted in the second half of 2023, just in time for the iPhone 15 lineup. The A17 will, by extension, be the first 3nm SoC in a smartphone. Thus, it makes sense to expect a more noticeable gap in raw performance between the A17 and A16, in comparison to the one between the A16 and A15.

If Apple adheres to its new strategy of using the newest chipset only for its “Pro” iPhones, it is very much possible for us to see a very noticeable chasm between the iPhone 15 and the iPhone 15 Pro.