As we all know, the A series of chips used in the iPhone is a key factor for Apple's mobile phone to stand in the high-end market. The self-developed core chip has a far-leading performance level in the industry, so that the popularity and influence of the iPhone covers the world. The A series chips have been iterated to the A15 so far, and are currently being used on the iPhone 13 series. As the upcoming iPhone 14 series, the new A16 chip has obviously attracted much attention from inside and outside the industry.
Recently, foreign media broke the news that the A16 chip has begun trial production at TSMC, but it has not been able to make the 3nm process. Previously, it was reported that TSMC's 3nm process process has made a major breakthrough, and this process delayed due to the development of technology is about to be launched, so it is decided to continue mass production of the second version of the 3nm process N3B this year. According to the convention, apple every year to release the iPhone will be based on TSMC's latest process technology for mass production, so most people speculate that this year's A16 chip, will use the 3nm process process, that all aspects of the performance will be significantly improved.
However, it has recently been rumored that SMC 3nm will use FinFET technology, which is expected to start production in 2023. This also means that the A16 chip equipped with the iPhone 14 series to be released in the autumn will not use the 3nm process process this time, but will use the relatively mature 4nm process. Based on the previous breaking information, the A16 chip still uses a 2+4 six-core CPU architecture design, the CPU architecture and energy efficiency have been improved, and the A16 chip is expected to increase the performance by about 20%. At the same time, the A16 chip will also support 5G dual-band, the new generation of LPDDR5 and WiFi5E and other technologies.
The author believes that compared with the early 3nm process, the more mature 4nm process is a more secure choice. On the iPhone 12 series, due to the use of the latest process technology, there are problems of large power consumption and serious hotness, and the user experience has dropped significantly. According to the convention, the iPhone 14 may still use the A16 chip residual version, the upgrade is not very large, pro and above versions will use the full blood version of the A16 chip. In addition, whether the iPhone14 will cancel the liu hai screen has not yet been clearly informed, as the logo of Apple's mobile phone, suddenly removed, the author even feels some unaccustomed. As for the specific situation, you can pay attention to the follow-up reports.