The A17 Bionic is reported to be the world’s first 3nm SoC mass-produced using TSMC’s 3nm technology, also known as N3B, and will be found exclusively in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. While we may anticipate various benefits for the next flagships, including significant efficiency gains, wafer costs are significant.
Apple is said to be switching to TSMC’s N3E technology in 2024 for A17 Bionic, but this may have one drawback.
Apple was previously rumoured to have secured 90 percent of TSMC’s 3nm shipments, indicating that the technological behemoth aims to be ahead of the competition in launching cutting-edge silicon before Qualcomm, MediaTek, and others.
Apple’s smartphone chip competition will remain with TSMC’s 4nm technology this year, indicating that wafer costs are skyrocketing, which could be one of the reasons why the Cupertino company raises the price of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
To offset rising component costs, a Weibo user known as ‘Mobile phone chip master’ claims that Apple would switch to TSMC’s N3E process for the A17 Bionic in 2024, the same manufacturing node that Qualcomm and MediaTek are expected to use next year. While this rumoured move would result in a cheaper chipset, it is also rumoured that the A17 Bionic may lose performance, which is strange to hear.
N3 consumes up to 30% less power, while N3E consumes up to 32% less power. Furthermore, N3E outperforms N5 by up to 18%, but N3 can only outperform N5 by up to 15%. Furthermore, if there is a performance drop, the Weibo user easily omits the numerical differences between the two A17 Bionic models.
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