For advanced process manufacturing, the mobile phone industry has always been the first to eat crabs, and the Android flagship chips Tianji 9000 and Snapdragon 8 for 2022 use the 4nm process of TSMC and Samsung respectively. At the same time, TSMC's 4nm process is already in full swing, and the first to use may be Apple.
DigiTimes quoted supply chain sources as saying that TSMC intends to produce chips based on the 3nm process in the fourth quarter of 2022. There is further definite news at present, but foreign media generally believe that the first chips to use 3nm should be Apple's A17 and M3.
By convention, the A17 naturally corresponds to the iPhone 15. Apple's flagship phone is expected to be released in the fall of 2023, followed by the 2022 iPhone 14.
The iPhone 13 released this fall is equipped with an A15 chip, based on TSMC's 5nm process. From the official parameters and subsequent tests, the theoretical performance improvement of A15 is not obvious, but the power consumption has been significantly improved. This results in much better performance output stability than the iPhone 12.
Limited by the speed of semiconductor progress and the heat dissipation mechanism of mobile phones, Apple's A16 and A17 generations of chips feel unlikely to significantly improve performance and power consumption at the same time. But in any case, with the blessing of more advanced technology, the comprehensive strength of A17 will most likely be much stronger than the current A series chips.
As for the M3 chip, it should be the first to be used in Mac products. Relatively speaking, it is not so strict about heat dissipation. The previous generations of M series chips have fully proved their strength, compared to the performance of the improvement, Apple may need to do more or improve the macOS ecology. After all, not everyone who buys a Mac is there to cut a piece.
As a large customer of TSMC, it should not be difficult for Apple chips to obtain priority production rights. However, the factors affecting the production capacity of iPhones and Macs are not the core SoC, and the shortage of many components will lead to problems in product capacity.
Recently, there has been news that the iPhone 14 may mix A15 and A16 chips. But Xiao Lei feels unlikely, and it is more reasonable to digest the A15 inventory with the new iPhone SE. If the iPhone 14 does not upgrade the chip, sales feel that there will be a great negative impact.