The tech world is abuzz with the latest news on upcoming smartphone chipsets. The transistor count on chips has been increasing year-over-year, thanks to feature size decreasing due to evolving technology. According to reports, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 from Qualcomm is expected to perform better than the A16 Bionic in terms of CPU. However, it seems that TSMC’s 3 nm node has been reserved for Apple’s next-gen chipset, the A17 Bionic, giving it a production priority over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 9300, which will continue to be manufactured on TSMC’s 4 nm processes.
In 2022, Qualcomm improved upon the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip by switching to TSMC’s 4 nm process for the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. As evident from the latest smartphone launches, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has been a huge success. Now, rumors suggest that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will outperform the A16 Bionic in the CPU department. However, it seems Apple will bounce back harder, claiming its lead back with the upcoming A17 Bionic chip this fall.
Reports suggest that TSMC will be responsible for manufacturing the A17 Bionic. This doesn’t come as a surprise at all, since the Taiwanese company has been producing Apple SoCs for quite some time. What’s interesting, though, is that the A17 Bionic will be built on TSMC’s 3 nm process, alongside the next-gen M3 chips. Apple is said to have fully booked TSMC‘s 3 nm production capacity, leaving no room for Qualcomm and MediaTek. It will be exciting to see how other chip manufacturers will adjust to his change in this market scenario.
What this means is that the A17 Bionic, which is expected to power the iPhone 15 Pro models coming this year, will have a generational advantage over Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and MediaTek’s Dimensity 9300. Qualcomm might stay at the top for now. However, as mentioned previously, when Apple announces the A17 Bionic chip in 2023, Apple will most likely reclaim its position at the top, at least until the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is released at the end of 2024. Even then, the competition will definitely be cutthroat.
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