Future Apple Silicon Macs Will Reportedly Use 3nm Chips With Up to 40 Cores

The Information's Wayne Ma today shared alleged details about future Apple silicon chips that will succeed the first-generation M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max chips, which are manufactured based on Apple chipmaking partner TSMC's 5nm process.

The report claims that Apple and TSMC plan to manufacture second-generation Apple silicon chips using an enhanced version of TSMC's 5nm process, and the chips will apparently contain two dies, which can allow for more cores. These chips will likely be used in the next MacBook Pro models and other Mac desktops, the report says.

Apple is planning a "much bigger leap" with its third-generation chips, some of which will be manufactured with TSMC's 3nm process and have up to four dies, which the report says could translate into the chips having up to 40 compute cores. For comparison, the M1 chip has an 8-core CPU and the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips have 10-core CPUs, while Apple's high-end Mac Pro tower can be configured with up to a 28-core Intel Xeon W processor.

The report cites sources who expect TSMC to be able to reliably manufacture 3nm chips by 2023 for use in both Macs and iPhones. The third-generation chips are codenamed Ibiza, Lobos, and Palma, according to the report, and it's likely they will debut in higher-end Macs first, such as future 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models. A less powerful third-generation chip is also said to be planned for a future MacBook Air.

Meanwhile, the report says the next Mac Pro will use a variant of the M1 Max chip with at least two dies, as part of the first generation of Apple silicon chips.