TSMC is scheduled to start volume production of the new 3 nm production this year, which should once again offer significant advantages over the current 5 nm process. However, they are said to be a long way from arriving in the PC market: According to Ars Technica, which refers to a paywall article by The Information, Apple has secured the entire production capacity for around a year.
3nm manufacturing for Apple
It was clear in advance that Apple would use TSMC’s 3 nm process for the new M3 SoCs and the A17 Bionic. It is unusual that the competition is excluded for about a year at the same time. And that’s not the only special feature: the Apple deal also allegedly deviates from the standard when it comes to the type of payment. Because while the chip developers usually have to pay for each manufactured wafer, Apple is said to have negotiated direct payment for the manufactured chips. The fact that Apple is TSMC’s largest customer, which was responsible for almost a quarter of sales last year, probably played a role here.
Due to the different type of payment, TSMC does not get any money for defective chips, which on the other hand should of course be an immense incentive to increase the yield rate. Currently, the yield of 3 nm production is said to be around 70 percent, so there is still a lot of room for improvement. At the same time, Apple can plan precisely because you can be sure of getting the right number of functional chips.
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As soon as Apple introduces the new 3 nm SoCs in the fall, the company should probably be ahead of the competition due to the manufacturing advantage in terms of efficiency. Next year, the new process should of course also arrive in the PC market. The phasing out of exclusivity fits in well with the current two-year cycles of CPUs and graphics cards, with updates coming up again next year.
Source: Ars Technica
