Apple M2 Pro, M2 Max, will enter mass production on TSMC’s 3nm process next month, A16 Bionic will remain on 4nm

The M2 Pro and M2 Max are expected to go into mass production next month on TSMC’s cutting-edge 3nm architecture. Apple is expected to use these powerful and efficient SoCs in future Macs, but just because they’ll be mass-produced next month doesn’t mean we’ll see new products so soon. Also, for those excited about the iPhone 14 series, note that the A16 Bionic will not be manufactured on this next-gen 3nm process.

New Macs with the 3nm M2 Pro and M2 Max are expected to arrive in the first half of next year

The report published by Commercial Times claims that the M2 Pro and M2 Max could be the first to use TSMC’s advanced 3nm process. In case you haven’t read it before, we reported earlier that both Apple Silicon will be mass-produced later this year, although details on what month they would start operations weren’t disclosed. Unfortunately, the A16 Bionic will not be manufactured on this architecture for many reasons.

First, Apple likely gave TSMC A16 Bionic orders to run on its 4nm architecture months before the Taiwanese manufacturer announced its 3nm process. Second, even if Apple wanted to secure A16 Bionic shipments on the 3nm process, the nature of manufacturing large wafers on such a lithograph meant that the company would likely encounter yield issues, resulting in fewer shipments. delivered to Apple. This would cause more delays for premium iPhone 14 models.

Since Apple has reportedly informed suppliers to prepare components for 95 million iPhone 14 units for this year, it will need a constant supply for a few months. Also, the new Macs with the M2 Pro and M2 Max aren’t expected until next year, so while we’d have liked to see new hardware in 2022, there’s a long list of factors preventing companies from delivering. products according to our planned schedule.

As for specs, the M2 Max is expected to arrive with a 12-core CPU and 38-core GPU variant, but it will likely be reserved for the higher-tier configuration, forcing customers to pay extra to get those. additional cores. We don’t have specifics on the specs of the M2 Pro, other than that both SoCs will retain the unified maximum RAM limits allocated like the M1 Pro and M1 Max, which is 64GB.

The difference here is that we could see Apple adopting the new LPDDR5 memory standard as it did with the M2. TSMC’s 3nm process will likely be used to make the A17 Bionic, but the latter will exclusively ship in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. As for the regular iPhone 15 models, they will probably be treated with the A16 Bionic.

If you’re interested in learning more about the M2 Pro and M2 Max, be sure to peruse our in-depth rumor roundup while sharing your thoughts in the comments.

Source of information: Commercial Times