iPhone chipmaker could kick off small scale production of 2nm chips later this year
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) which manufactures chips for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, will have 2nm chipsets ready in time for next year's iPhone 17 Pro, suggests a new report from Taiwanese outlet DIGITIMES (via AppleInsider).
TSMC introduced the 2nm manufacturing technology during the 2022 Technology Symposium. At that time, it was reported that the fabrication process would use gate-all-around field-effect transistors (GAAFETs) instead of FinFET and it would offer either up to 15 percent higher performance or 30 percent lower power consumption than N3E - the process that would be used for the iPhone 16 Pro's chip.
TSMC had targeted the second half of 2025 for high-volume production and per today's report, it's on track to commence trial production in late 2024 and kick off mass production in 2025.
Since the next iPhones will probably be launched in September, it's safe to assume that the first 2nm A-series chip will debut on the iPhone 17. Apple is usually TSMC's first client to benefit from its new processes, so the iPhone 17 will probably be the only phone with TSMC's 2nm chip next year.
TSMC is also readying an enhanced 2nm mode known as N2P and chips based on the tech won't be ready before the end of 2026.
The foundry is also progressing as planned to produce 1.4nm chips. They are internally known as the A14 but we shouldn't expect to see them in consumer devices anytime soon.
As for the A18 processors that will fuel the upcoming iPhone 16 lineup, leaked benchmark results suggest they will not be significantly faster than the A17 Pro that powers the iPhone 15 Pro and may even lose out to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, Qualcomm's next flagship chip that will underpin the next generation of Android phones.
This is something we get to hear every year though so we will have to wait until September to find out if Android phones are going to be the next speed kings.
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