Despite 5nm just starting to make its way to the commercial market, TSMC has already begun work on the 3nm process. The world’s largest contract chipmaker is already looking into 3nm process for Apple‘s A series of mobile chips or Apple Silicon, which should be mass produced in 2022, since rumors have reported on a risk production of said processors beginning in 2021.
According to a new report from AppleInsider, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company had recently supplied Apple with the A12Z Bionic chipset and is working on bringing the process to even smaller fabrication scales. With the current generation soon making a move to 5nm from 7nm, the next step will have the company achieve the even smaller 3nm process as well.
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Previously, we had reported that TSMC had to delay the 3nm process’ trial production to 2021 and mass production to 2022. Although the exact date for the risk production and trial phase is unknown, the company will announce the timeline by the end of this year. Notably, the upcoming 3nm process will bring a number of improvements over the new 5nm chips.
It will feature a 15 percent greater transistor density, along with a performance increase of 10 to 15 percent, and even raise energy efficiency by 20 to even 25 percent. Apple has been a major customer for TSMC’s latest processes, so we can expect next gen mobile chips or even the yet to be announced Apple Silicon to be built on the upcoming fabrication method. For those unaware, Apple Silicon will replace Intel on the company’s Mac computers and will be based on the ARM architecture.
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