According to three people familiar with the matter, the A17 mobile processor currently under development by Apple will use TSMC's N3E chip manufacturing technology (3nm Enhanced) for mass production. They also said the A17 will be used for high-end models of the iPhone series scheduled for release in 2023.

TSMC's N3E technology, an updated version of the current first-generation 3-nanometer technology (N3), is expected to start testing this year and mass production in the second half of next year.

Nanometer size refers to the width between transistors on a chip. When the width between the transistors on a chip is smaller, there are more transistors, making them more powerful and more challenging and expensive to produce.

According to the previous overseas media, compared with N5 (5nm), N3E can reduce power consumption by 34% under the same performance and density, improve performance by 18% under the same power consumption and density, or increase transistor density by 60%.
      Market analyst Dylan Patel said that Apple may use different levels of chip production technology between high-end and non-high-end models, making the difference between the two even greater.

In the past Apple conference, only the high-end iPhone 14 Pro series used the latest A16 core processor, produced by TSMC's 4-nanometer process technology, which is currently the most advanced mass production technology. The iPhone 14 series uses the older A15 processor.

The biggest differences between the previous iPhone Pro and iPhone models were in the screen and camera, but that could expand to processors and memory chips since then.

Patel estimates that when chips move from 5-nanometer technology (including 4-nanometer technology) to 3-nanometer technology, the cost of the same area of silicon will increase by at least 40%.

Source: CLS.CN