Apple Books Nearly 90% of TSMC's 3nm Production Capacity for This Year

[MacRumors]

Apple has booked nearly 90% of chip supplier TSMC's first-generation 3-nanometer process capacity this year for future iPhones, Macs, and iPads, according to industry sources cited by DigiTimes, providing the Taiwanese foundry with significant growth momentum in the second half of 2023.

Apple's upcoming ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ models are expected to feature the A17 Bionic processor, Apple's first ‌iPhone‌ chip based on TSMC's first-generation ‌3nm‌ process, also known as N3B. The 3nm technology is said to deliver a 35% power efficiency improvement and 15% faster performance compared to 4nm, which was used to make the A16 Bionic chip for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.

Apple's M3 chip for Macs and iPads is also expected to use the 3nm process. The first M3 devices are expected to include an updated 13-inch MacBook Air and 24-inch iMac, both of which could arrive later this year. New iPad Pro models coming next year are likely to be powered by M3 chips, while Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that new 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pro models coming in 2024 will feature ‌M3‌ Pro and ‌‌M3‌‌ Max chips.

According to an App Store developer log obtained by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple is currently testing a new chip with a 12-core CPU, 18-core GPU, and 36GB of memory, which could be the base-level M3 Pro for the next-generation 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models launching next year.

According to The Information, future Apple silicon chips built on the 3nm process will feature up to four dies, which would support up to 40 compute cores. The M2 chip has a 10-core CPU and the ‌M2‌ Pro and Max have 12-core CPUs, so 3nm could significantly boost multi-core performance. At minimum, 3nm should provide the biggest performance and efficiency leap to Apple's chips since 2020.

TSMC is also working on an enhanced 3nm process called N3E. Apple devices will eventually migrate to the N3E generation, which is expected to enter commercial production in the second half of 2023, but actual shipments will not ramp up until 2024, according to DigiTimes.

Article Link: Apple Books Nearly 90% of TSMC's 3nm Production Capacity for This Year

 

[zilchfox]

Last time I bought a book, it didn’t need a processor at all.

 

[newyorksole]

that’s pretty crazy. let’s see which product gets it first!

 

[rpmurray]

... and still no word on the Mac Pro.

 

[senttoschool]

When was the last time Digitimes got something right that wasn't obvious?

Genuine question.

 

[nottorp]

Apple is currently testing a new chip with a 12-core CPU, 18-core GPU, and 36GB of memory

An Apple product with a reasonable amount of RAM being the default? Nope, this cannot be.

And why 36? Non power of 2 numbers haven't been in fashion for ram in a long time.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Those must be some chonky books:

 

[gpat]

I'm still not convinced about the A17 being a product of N3B, I would've expected N3E from the start.

 

[dmr727]

I'm tired of hearing about it - let's see some hardware!

 

[klasma]

I thought Apple Books is software?

 

[SB1500]

Wow - I didn’t realise Apple Books was in such demand. Look out Kindle / Bezos!!! ;-)

 

[floral]

Since when did ebooks require that much processing power?

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

If true! The battery life is going to receive a massive improvement and efficiency.

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

Mac Pro CPUs coming?

 

[mossimossimossi]

I’m thinking The Information report needs to be revised. That rumor came out in 2021 when M1s were still at max 10-cpus on one die to make it 40-cpus on a four die configuration. That means the M3 Extreme should hit up to 48-cpus with the current 12-cpu limit per die.

Also, that The Information report was remarkably accurate!

 

[k1121j]

Well this is exciting lets get that 15 inch air on the market!!

 

[Bug-Creator]

An Apple product with a reasonable amount of RAM being the default?

*shrug* more CPU and less GPU than a M1Max which starts at 32GB, so nothing really "new" here.
It also does not say that that is the default RAM (and I still think 36 is a typo).

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Less than a month left till WWDC 2023 and I think I will be making posts here via Mid Night MacBook Air 15” 😎

 

[lazyrighteye]

If true! The battery life is going to receive a massive improvement and efficiency.

I’d be ok with that. I’d also be surprised if it’s going to feel massive, to the user, at the end of that day. Here’s hoping.

 

[Steve121178]

Well this is exciting let get that 15 inch air on the market!!

The 15" MBA may well have been designed with the M3 in mind but is almost certainly going to use the M2 chip that Apple has a massive inventory of.

 

[t0rqx]

Since when did ebooks require that much processing power?

Since basic functionality like a landscape FaceID, camera improvements and Stage manager and the soon to be introduced iPad native calculator all need the newest M chip to perform. They reintroduced the page turning animation, it was only possible with the powerful M-chips.

 

[azentropy]

An Apple product with a reasonable amount of RAM being the default? Nope, this cannot be.

And why 36? Non power of 2 numbers haven't been in fashion for ram in a long time.

Apple bucks trends. I would not be surprised is Apple moved to a 12/24/36 model. They do have a 24 M2 option. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a typo either.

 

[neuropsychguy]

The question is which companies are using the other 10%?

 

[Bug-Creator]

The question is which companies are using the other 10%?

- 90% booked does not mean they can't end up 99.99%
- every other TMSC costumer hoping to ship 3nm chips in 2024/25 will need to have sample production runs this year

 

[oneMadRssn]

An Apple product with a reasonable amount of RAM being the default? Nope, this cannot be.

And why 36? Non power of 2 numbers haven't been in fashion for ram in a long time.

RAM amounts only being available in powers 2 was due to dual-channel RAM, where you needed two DIMMs of the same amount to maximize speed. Eg., it was faster to have 2x 32GB, instead of 1x 64GB. Apple silicon uses a different RAM system that is relatively agnostic to RAM amounts.