No 4nm? Apple A16 process exposure: still TSMC 5nm

Apple's original plan may have been to use a 4nm process with a higher process than the A15 in the iPhone 14 in 2022, but TSMC's 4nm will not be mass-produced until 2023. Therefore, the A16 processor on the iPhone 14 this year may only use the 5nm or enhanced 5nm+ process.

Ming-Chi Kuo also revealed that TSMC's 4nm process is actually not significantly improved compared to 5nm, so it is more reasonable for A16 to choose 5nm instead of waiting for 4nm.

Although the A16 missed 4nm, it will still have a lot of improvement compared to the A15. On the A16, Apple will support LPDDR5 memory for the first time, while enhancing the CPU and GPU. Compared with LPDDR 4X memory, LPDDR 5 memory is up to 1.5 times faster and has up to 30% more energy efficiency.

According to reports, the A16 chip will only debut in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, and the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max will continue to use the iPhone 13's A15 Bionic chip. The laptop's M2 chip will likely debut in the redesigned MacBook Air, before making its way to new Macs and possibly the next-generation iPad Pro later this year. However, the final naming of the "A16", "M2" and the final M1 chip variant has not yet been determined, and the news has not been officially confirmed.

There are also fruit fans who think that Apple plans to directly use the 3nm process technology on the A17, but according to Apple's ideas, they would rather squeeze toothpaste, and I am afraid they will not "jump".