Apple chipmaker TSMC is beginning trial production of 2nm chips, set to be used in the iPhone 17 Pro and other Apple devices from 2025.
The test run begins next week, significantly earlier than expected …
TSMC 2nm chips
TSMC has consistently led the chipmaking world in ever-smaller processes, with Apple its most important customer.
The company first demonstrated its 2nm chip process to Apple back in December of last year, and trial production is the point at which the company tests out the planned production line processes to be used, ahead of mass production.
Trial production of the latest chip tech was expected to begin no earlier than October, so a July start date is an encouraging sign. ET News reports.
Getting a high enough yield rate – the percentage of chips which pass quality-control checks – is one of the biggest challenges for new process sizes. Back in April of last year, TSMC was unable to keep up with demand for 3nm chips as the yield rate was only just over 50%.
Apple may have reserved all 2nm capacity
Apple is believed to have reserved all of TSMC’s 3nm chip capacity for the iPhone 15 Pro and M3 chip for Macs, and a report back in May suggested the company was working on doing the same with 2nm chips.
Using a 2nm process is expected to lead to a significant boost to both performance and power-efficiency of next year’s Apple chips.
Source: 9to5mac