Apple Silicon Likely to Benefit as TSMC Aims to Launch 2nm Chips by 2025

Apple chip supplier TSMC will begin production of advanced 2nm chips by 2025, in what is likely to contribute to a key future iteration of Apple silicon, Nikkei Asia reports.

tsmc semiconductor chip inspection 678x452
TSMC made the announcement at an industry event on Thursday, explaining that its 2nm technology will be based on "nanosheet transistor architecture." Nanosheet architecture is a totally different chip technology from the FinFET infrastructure used for TSMC's current 5nm chips, delivering significant performance and efficiency improvements. Apple's latest chips, such as the M2 and A15 Bionic, are produced with TSMC's 5nm fabrication process.

TSMC's first 3nm chips are due to begin production in the second half of 2022. Apple could introduce custom silicon chips based on TSMC's ‌3nm‌ process as soon as this year, but other reports claim that the technology is likely to debut with the "M3" and "A17" chips in 2023.

The 2025 timeframe is the first official schedule for the company's 2nm chip production and is highly likely to be used for future Apple silicon chips. The 2nm fabrication process, also known simply as "N2," is expected to offer a 10 to 15 percent speed improvement at the same power or a 25 to 30 percent power reduction at the same speed compared to chips made with the supplier's ‌3nm‌ technology.

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Top Rated Comments

HobeSoundDarryl Avatar
35 months ago
Fractions or they start spinning angstroms. There's always a smaller measure to adopt to support a marketing message. And don't let the laws of physics get in the way either. By super-fine hair-splitting, it can sound like whole number generations year over year while actually being only a fraction of what used to be a single generational number.

For example, if we put this in money terms, you would think a penny is as low as money goes. And yet, every gas station you pass adds the charge of 9/10ths of one cent... implying that someone else might bid that down to 8/10ths, 7/10ths, etc. But what if it gets down to 1/10th... then what??? Hello .0099, .0098, .0097, etc. That should buy a hundred years of generational gain claims.

There's always a smaller measure. And even when physics throws up a hard barrier, the fine hair that remains to max- er MIN- out the possibilities could be split into thousanths, ten thousandths, etc. The whole number will sound as familiar as whole numbers in nanometers now even if it is working within the fractional limits of only a single nanometer.

Besides, as others post often, even the current X nanometer process isn't literal. It's just a marketing "puffery" claim, apparently driven by the perceived need of a lower number in spite of the technology not actually representing the claim.


Funny how they call it 2nm while the transistor size or the absolute distance between the transistors is no where near 2 nanometers.
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Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
0194839 Avatar
35 months ago
I have great great respect for the engineers designing these chips. Very impressive engineering feat.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
headlessmike Avatar
35 months ago

What happens when they hit 1nm? Is it possible to go even smaller?
We start all over again with Ångström, where 1 nm = 10 Å. The big question is how far physics will let us go. Molecular bonds are typically 1-2 Å in length so we can’t go smaller than that with ordinary matter.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iPadified Avatar
35 months ago

I’m British but why aren’t these machines made in the USA? The USA invented all of this in the first place - Silicon Valley, the clue is in the name of course.

Given the huge strategic importance of semiconductors to the modern world, why has a US company become critically dependent on suppliers outside of the USA?

Sadly in a world where Ukraine has happened we can’t be sure that seamless international trade is a given.

I’m not trying to rub anyone’s nose in it, I’m just genuinely curious - and I do realise that I’m going off topic.
Intel has fabs in USA but could not keep up with the nm race. Taiwan and South Korea have simply become very skilled to make state of the art chips. Cost is also an issue.

You raise a good point though and EU are already begun discussions about chip fabs on the European continent to ensure chips enough to feed the EU based industries. They already started before the Ukraine war due to chip shortage. Similarly, EU will ensure internal production of medicine, vaccines and other critical medical goods to not be too dependent on others in a pandemic. Despite UK living EU, I hope we will have a nice collaboration on critical products across the channel.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NBAasDOGG Avatar
35 months ago
Funny how they call it 2nm while the transistor size or the absolute distance between the transistors is no where near 2 nanometers.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mikethemartian Avatar
35 months ago

It would be a really interesting story to find out why cutting edge tech like this isn’t being produced in the USA but in Taiwan.

Why did companies in the USA seemingly drop the ball in not being able to offer this technology?
The machines TSMC uses come from ASML in Europe.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)