“Apple has started designing M3 soc on TSMC’s 3nm process”

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Apple would have started designing the M3 soc, the successor to its own M2. It would be produced later in 2023 on TSMC’s 3nm process and may already be released that year or early 2024.

Apple would have started the basic design of the M3 soc for production on TSMC’s N3E production node, according to the Commercial Times in that country. The M3 will be codenamed Palma and will be produced on TSMC’s N3E, the second generation of the company’s 3nm process, according to the newspaper. It was already known that production should start in the second half of 2023. M3 production would start during that period, or else in the first half of 2024, the newspaper writes. However, the first chip produced at 3nm would be the M2 Pro, which may be used on future MacBook Pros and the Mac Mini. That’s what analyst Mark Gurman wrote in June. However, these would be made on TSMC’s N3 product; N3E is the enhanced version of the N3 node.

According to the Commercial Times, the 3nm manufacturing process is also being applied to the A17 Bionic chips that Apple plans to make for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. The M1 and M2 chips that Apple had made by TSMC were still built on a 5nm process. The 3nm process would have 15 percent better performance and up to 30 percent more fuel efficiency, but N3E would improve that performance even more.

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