TSMC road map calls for 4nm procees node this year, 3nm in 2022

The world's largest independent foundry is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and it brings to life chips designed by some of the best tech companies on the planet including Apple, MediaTek, AMD, and more. Last year TSMC started building cutting-edge chips with its 5nm process node including the A14 Bionic used in the iPhone 12 series.

As more and more transistors fit into a square mm, the more powerful and energy-efficient chips become. TSMC is expected to launch its 3nm process node during the second half of 2022 and there is a good chance that the A16 Bionic chipsets for the iPhone 14 line will be the first mass produced at that node. But before TSMC gets to 3nm, Digitimes says that TSMC will produce 4nm chips later this year.

Apple reportedly reserved the initial bunch of 4nm production for future Macs and also ordered that the foundry start production of the A15 Bionic for the iPhone 13 line. Those latter chips will be built by TSMC using its 5nm enhanced node. TSMC says that its 3nm chips will start mass production late next year.

The 3nm process node will provide up to a 15% speed gain or consume up to 30% less power compared to the 5nm process. Following a couple of years of 3nm, we should see 2nm next and both TSMC and Samsung Foundry have plans to produce at that process node. But what happens after that is definitely up in the air for now.