Apple and Intel take the lead in adopting TSMC’s 3nm technology: report
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When chip foundry manufacturers deploy at the end of 2022, Apple and Intel will take the lead in adopting the TSMC N3 (3nm) manufacturing process, Nikkei Asia News Agency Reported on Friday. Intel is expected to use this technology to make CPUs for PCs and servers, and Apple is expected to use this node for its system-on-chips for client devices.
Apple and Intel are currently “testing their chip designs produced using TSMC’s N3 process.” Nikkei The report quoted several people who knew the matter. Given that N3 is about to “officially” enter the risk production model in the next few weeks, and assuming that the information provided by news organizations is correct, we can speculate that Apple and Intel have completed their N3 CPU and SoC. Although it is not clear whether they have functional silicon. Commercial production of these chips is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2022.
It is said that Intel is preparing at least two products manufactured using TSMC’s N3 node: one for notebook computers and the other for servers.There is currently no detailed information about these processors, but Intel has accidentally confirmed Xeon SoC manufactured by TSMC Targeting various niche markets. Intel confirmed a few months ago that it is cooperating with TSMC to develop products for 2023, but did not disclose any details.
Earlier this year, Intel promised its codename Meteor Lake and Granite Rapids processors For client PCs and high-end servers manufactured using its own 7-nanometer manufacturing technology, it is expected to be launched in 2023.
The report also stated that Apple will use its N3 SoC for its iPad tablets in late 2022 or early 2023. Keep in mind that Apple’s latest iPad Pro uses the same SoC as the company’s entry-level and mid-range Macs, and the original N3 SoC may also enter the PC. Apple’s subsequent N3-based devices will be used in smartphones. Apple did not comment on this story.
TSMC N3 manufacturing process It is the company’s brand new node, which will provide improvements over N5’s full node PPA (performance, power, area). The foundry promises a performance increase of 10% to 15% (under the same power and number of transistors), up to 30% power reduction (under the same clock and complexity), up to 70% logic density gain and up to 20% SRAM density gain. ASML has stated that N3 will actively use extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) with “over 20 layers”.
In a recent technical seminar, TSMC confirmed that N3 was designed to support smartphones and high-performance computing (HPC) applications from the beginning, so the company will provide high-performance and high-density libraries through nodes. Such libraries will enable companies such as Intel to maximize the performance of their CPUs, and SoC designers will be able to integrate more functions into their products.
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