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According to a new report, Apple will move to TSMC’s N3E process in the A17 and A18 Bionic chips in the iPhone 16 series next year.
Jeff Pu of Hong Kong-based investment firm Haitong International Securities shared it in a note to investors. The report focused on the RAM and chip specifications of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models next year. As shared by the analyst, the models will use 8GB RAM and an A17 Bionic chip.
These are basically the things that will be handed down by the iPhone 15 Pro models this year, but Pu noted that the A17 and A18 chip that the iPhone 16 models will use a different node.
As noted by MacRumors in its report, the A17 Bionic chip of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will employ TSMC’s N3B process. However, the report notes that Apple might shift to N3E in 2024.
MacRumors report:
N3B is TSMC’s original 3nm node created in partnership with Apple. N3E, on the other hand, is the simpler, more accessible node that most other TSMC clients will use. N3E has fewer EUV layers and lower transistor density than N3B, resulting in efficiency tradeoffs, but the process can provide better performance. N3B has also been ready for mass production for some time longer than N3E, but it has much lower yield. N3B was effectively designed as a trial node and is not compatible with TSMC’s successor processes including N3P, N3X, and N3S, meaning that Apple will need to redesign its future chips to take advantage of TSMC’s advancements.
