TSMC Expected to Begin 3nm Chip Production in Late 2022 Ahead of First M3 Macs

Thursday December 23, 2021 8:36 am PST by Joe Rossignol

TSMC plans to begin commercial production of chips built on its 3nm process in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to industry sources cited by DigiTimes. The full report has yet to be published, so no additional details are available at this time.

m3 feature black
Apple is expected to release its first devices with 3nm chips fabricated by TSMC in 2023, including Macs with M3 chips and iPhone 15 models with A17 chips. As usual, the move to a more advanced process will result in improved performance and power efficiency, which will enable faster speeds and longer battery life on future Macs and iPhones.

The Information's Wayne Ma last month reported that some M3 chips will have up to four dies, which he said could allow for up to a 40-core CPU. By comparison, the M1 chip has an 8-core CPU and the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips have 10-core CPUs.

M1 Macs already offer industry-leading performance-per-watt, while the A15 chip in iPhone 13 models is the fastest processor ever in a smartphone, so the move to a 3nm process within a few years should only bolster Apple's lead in this area.

Tags: 2023 iPhones, 3nm Guide, TSMC

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Top Rated Comments

bergert

63 months ago

Dear CEO of INTEL. To go from 4 to 6 cores of your XEON I paid $1000 INTEL-tax (OK, plus upgrade from D300 to D500 GPU). Yet, it is beaten handily my an iPhone chip consuming 20W. Don't put big words in your mouth how you want to "do business with Apple" - you had more than 10 years to produce a reasonable fast CPU; and all you have are lame excuses for a product which still costs top $$$. Go to the corner, think about how your failed miserably, and shut the f*ck up.

Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)

ooans

63 months ago

Wow... Kinda embarrased that I own an M1 based Mac. Nearly obsolete!

Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)

djcerla

63 months ago

Cue BMW suing Apple: “too fast, can create brand confusion”.

Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Realityck

63 months ago

TSMC stated on its official website that the 3nm process is a complete process node span after 5nm. For the 3nm process foundry chips, the theoretical density of transistors will increase by 70% relative to 5nm. Furthermore, the operating speed will increase by 15%, and the energy efficiency will increase by 30%.

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Eric_WVGG

63 months ago

It’s going to be interesting to see if the Mac consumer upgrade cycle decreases as a result of the Apple Silicon change.

Back in the nineties and early 2000’s, it seemed uncommon for a laptop to be useful for more than about two years. The rate of change was such that anything became unusable within that period, and often didn't even have the necessary specs to run new software.

That hasn't been the case for close to a decade now. Average computers still run great between 8 (really!) and 16gb RAM, maybe 32 for power users. My last computer, a 2016 MBP, was great for five years; my brother-in-law just informed me that he was finally replacing his 2013 MBP with an M1(!!).

I don't expect software needs to catch up with Apple Silicon speed any time soon (if ever), but one of the fascinating and under-reported things about M1 processors is that they don't just run faster than Intel chips, they do different things. There is no Intel "Neural Engine," for example. Afterburner cards haven't exactly taken off, but it's an interesting concept that has only just been tried.

While I can pretty much promise that I won't be replacing this M1Pro with an M2Pro next year, I can't say the same for the M3Pro. It might not just be faster — it could also be new in a way that wasn't possible in the Intel era.

Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)