Apple & TSMC are already planning for 2nm Apple Silicon
As of course you’re expect Apple and TSMC are already looking at the next big leap in Apple Silicon, this time a move to 2nm chips, and the first such processors could emerge as soon as by 2025.
Apple and TSMC are already looking at 2nm
Financial Times reports TSMC has demonstrated its 2nm process tech to Apple. The 2025 target date may slip, as it did when the companies shifted to 3nm processors, but the direction of travel remains positive.
The beauty of 2nm chips will be a similar boost in processor performance and a reduction in battery life.
They will be more efficient and far more capable of the kind of computational performance we can all now see coming down the pipe as sophisticated edge device AI processing is expected to be part of the next wave in tech. Generative AI will be important to all forms of intelligent tech, including autonomous vehicles – you really don’t want your car making an error because it couldn’t get a server link.
Apple’s processor investment is relatively cheap
Apple and TSMC have arguably one of the more successful corporate partnerships in tech. TSMC benefits from the big boost Apple gives it against rivals,, Samsung and Nvidia, while Apple gets a supplier who can deliver processors at mass market levels. Stop to consider it and it should be clear that Apple’s chip consumption means TSMC now competes with any chip foundry – with the advantage of near guaranteed sales to help justify those R&D costs.
And, of course, the level of those sales means processor design for these products is far less constrained than chip design is for others. The benefit of scale means the R&D teams can spend a little more.
Apple Silicon: Getting better all the time
Size isn’t the only thing Apple is looking at to drive future improvements within its products, of course.
On-chip efficiencies through lithographic design, process and materials design, networking and astute use of on-board power management technologies all form just part of the company’s research efforts. After all, having built a reputation for delivering significant chip enhancement’s on an annual basis with every processor it makes, Apple will fight to ensure that’s an M.O. it can maintain.
Why customers benefit as Apple processors improve
What it means to users is that they can have a reasonable expectation that the Mac, iPhone, or iPad they get to buy in 2025. These devices will be significantly faster and more performant than any new Apple device you purchase today, and those devices on sale today are already better than most in their price range – and will still be delivering good value in five years’ time. While we don’t quite know when the chip manufacturing will begin, these may be the A20 and M6, or A19 and M5 chips. That latter point is pretty important – with Apple approaching almost 20 chip iterations now, the company must be considered to be as mighty a processor design house as anyone else, one with the added advantage of running inside a billion devices already.
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