iPhone 13's A15 Bionic is ahead of schedule: report

By Anam Hamid

Apr 07, 2021, 11:20 AM

iPhone 13's A15 Bionic is ahead of schedule: report

DigiTimes is reporting that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will begin shipping the A15 Bionic chipset meant for the iPhone 13 series by the end of May.

The foundry appears to be ahead of schedule, as the outlet had previously reported that production of the A15 Bionic would begin in May. The new chip will reportedly be built using an enhanced version of the 5nm process on which iPhone 12's A14 Bionic is based.

This is expected to lead to a 5 percent performance improvement or a 10 percent reduction in power consumption over the latest crop of iPhones. While that may sound like a modest gain, keep in mind that the A14 Bionic is already quite fast.

Next year's A16 Bionic, which will presumably underpin the iPhone 14 series, will reportedly use TSMC’s 3nm production process. Compared to 5nm chipsets, 3nm SoCs will reportedly use up to 30 percent less energy and deliver 15 percent better performance at the same power levels.

The iPhone 13 series is reportedly on track for a September 2021 launch.

TSMC is also expected to 'see major increases in output from its advanced processes,' which implies that the iPhone 12 series and other Apple devices will not be affected by the global chip shortage. Other smartphone makers, including Samsung and OnePlus, are believed to have been impacted.

Looks like A15 Bionic and next Snapdragon 800-series chip will both be made by TSMC

In related news, Qualcomm may go back to TSMC for its next high-end Snapdragon chip. The chipmaker seemingly had to get the Snapdragon 888 manufactured from Samsung because most of TSMC's 5nm capacity was booked by Apple.

It's not clear if today's report is referring to the overclocked version of the Snapdragon 888 that will likely be introduced in the second half of the year or the company's next flagship chip that will fuel 2022's premium Android phones.

While we are on the topic of chips, XDA Developers' Mishaal Rahman has corroborated a report that said the Google Pixel 6 will be fueled by an in-house silicon. The SoC is apparently internally known as the GS101 and per new information, it will have a 3 cluster setup with a TPU (Tensor Processing Unit).

According to past reports, the processor will be made by Samsung using its 5nm fabrication technology.

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