TSMC 3nm chip production begins Q4 2022

Inside the MacBook Pro (iFixit)

Apple’s silicon development road map is robust and even from the outside it’s now possible to see a couple of years ahead, with Apple’s M3 (and A17) processors becoming a 3-nanometer reality. Here’s what’s happening:

Up next: The M2 chips

Apple will introduce what we think will be the first M2 chips in 2022.

These will be iterations based on the current 5nm chip design, and while I have come across some claims that they make use of 4nm process technology the enhancements in these processors will likely be made at a transistor level.

TSMC will make the M2 using its new N4P manufacturing process, which delivers performance and power efficiency gains. Expect a 10% performance boost and slightly better battery life in these – but also anticipate dual core models for even bigger performance gains.

You can anticipate decent improvements in graphics, power management and overall computational performance, but they are unlikely to provide the magnitude of improvement seen when Apple abandoned Intel.

What’s happening with 3nm chips?

TSMC was originally anticipated to begin production of 3nm chips sooner, but we heard that was pushed back. Digitimes now tells us that Apple’s chip manufacturing partner has already begun pilot production of 3nm chips. That move to 3nm will likely be foundational to the Apple Silicon chips we expect to see inside Macs, iPhones, iPads and Apple Glass in future.

“TSMC has kicked off pilot production of chips built using N3 (namely 3nm process technology) at its Fab 18 in southern Taiwan,” Digitimes wrote, “and will move the process to volume production by the fourth quarter of 2022.”

Three chips together: M1, M1 Pro, M1 Max

The move to begin volume production by Q4 22 suggests that the iPhone 14 may be among the first Apple device to carry a 3nm chip — but we have previously heard this will not be the case. I guess we’ll learn more in the next few months.

What about 3nm Macs?

I’ve a feeling Apple will bed in the 3nm chips on iPhones first before it moves to deploy them in Macs, which suggests a 3nm M3 Mac in 2023.

The M3 may boast up to 40 cores compared to 10 in the M1. But don’t forget, these things scale – Apple squeezed 32-cores inside the M1 Max Macs. Which means that the M3 Max will reach even higher.

The Information has said Apple’s code name for these 3nm M3 chips are Ibiza, Lobos and Palma. (Hopefully they won’t run so hot as the latter).

The bottom line seems to be that we are reaching a point at which Apple will soon build computers that are so far advanced on the rest of the industry in computational performance that they will be capable of running demanding software no one has been able to write yet, because the machines weren’t available to support it.

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