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Apple Chipmaker Discusses Highly Advanced 1.4nm Chips for First Time

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TSMC has officially mentioned its work on 1.4nm fabrication technology that is likely destined to underpin future Apple silicon chips.

apple-silicon-1-feature.jpg

In a slide (via SemiAnalysis's Dylan Patel) from its Future of Logic panel, TSMC disclosed the official name of its 1.4nm node for the first time, "A14." The company's 1.4nm technology is expected to follow its "N2" 2nm chips.

N2 is scheduled for mass production in late 2025, to be followed by an enhanced "N2P" node in late 2026. As a result, it is unlikely that any A14 chips will arrive before 2027.

Apple was the first company to utilize TSMC's 3nm technology with the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, and the company is likely to follow suit with the chipmaker's upcoming nodes. Apple's latest chip technology has historically appeared in the iPhone before making its way to the iPad and Mac lineups. With all of the latest information, here's how the iPhone's chip technology could look going forward:

  • iPhone XR and XS (2018): A12 Bionic (7nm, N7)
  • iPhone 11 lineup (2019): A13 Bionic (7nm, N7P)
  • iPhone 12 lineup (2020): A14 Bionic (5nm, N5)
  • iPhone 13 Pro (2021): A15 Bionic (5nm, N5P)
  • iPhone 14 Pro (2022): A16 Bionic (4nm, N4P)
  • iPhone 15 Pro (2023): A17 Pro (3nm, N3B)
  • iPhone 16 Pro (2024): "A18" (3nm, N3E)
  • "iPhone 17 Pro" (2025): "A19" (2nm, N2)
  • "iPhone 18 Pro" (2026): "A20" (2nm, N2P)
  • "iPhone 19 Pro" (2027): "A21" (1.4nm, A14)

The M1 series of Apple silicon chips is based on the A14 Bionic and uses TSMC's N5 node, while the M2 and M3 series use N5P and N3B, respectively. The Apple Watch's S4 and S5 chips use N7, the S6, S7, and S8 chips use N7P, and the latest S9 chip uses N4P.

Each successive TSMC node surpasses its predecessor in terms of transistor density, performance, and efficiency. Earlier this week, it emerged that TSMC had already demonstrated prototype 2nm chips to Apple ahead of their expected introduction in 2025.

Article Link: Apple Chipmaker Discusses Highly Advanced 1.4nm Chips for First Time
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2023/12/14/tsmc-mentions-highly-advanced-1-4nm-chips/
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Apple Fan 2008

Apple Fan 2008

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MacRumors said:
  • iPhone XR and XS (2018): A12 Bionic (7nm, N7)
  • iPhone 11 lineup (2019): A13 Bionic (7nm, N7P)
  • iPhone 12 lineup (2020): A14 Bionic (5nm, N5)
  • iPhone 13 Pro (2021): A15 Bionic (5nm, N5P)
  • iPhone 14 Pro (2022): A16 Bionic (4nm, N4P)
  • iPhone 15 Pro (2023): A17 Pro (3nm, N3B)
  • iPhone 16 Pro (2024): "A18" (3nm, N3E)
  • "iPhone 17 Pro" (2025): "A19" (2nm, N2)
  • "iPhone 18 Pro" (2026): "A20" (2nm, N2P)
  • "iPhone 19 Pro" (2027): "A21" (1.4nm, A14)
Click to expand...
"THE NUMBERS MASON, WHAT DO THEY MEAN?"
 
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tenthousandthings

tenthousandthings

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May 14, 2012
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Apple's "A18" will be on N3P, not N3E, but otherwise the predicted iPhone sequence is as good a guess as we can make.

On TSMC's naming, just to be clear, the "A" stands for angstrom (10 angstrom = 1 nanometer) and should technically be an Å -- in the age of Unicode, there's no reason why TSMC can't simply use Å instead of A, but I suppose the marketing people objected to that. But we can hope that, when it's all official and not just a tech-conference slide for people who all know that A = Å, maybe TSMC will use Å instead of A...
 
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Apple_Gabe

Apple_Gabe

macrumors regular
Sep 2, 2022
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I probably will skip the 16 Pro and get the 17 Pro with the 2nm chip. None of the reported new features of the 16 is making me want to get it at the moment.
 
A

adildacoolset

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EightyEight said:
And you thought the USB naming scheme was confusing!
Click to expand...
If you discount the naming conflict with Apple, it's quite logical. 1.4 nm is 14 Angstroms. Intel already call their 18 Angstrom process as 18A, so TSMC – trying not to clash with Intel's naming – swapped the "A" to A14. It's also consistent with the "N3X" naming convention.
 
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DominikHoffmann

DominikHoffmann

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Jan 15, 2007
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tenthousandthings said:
Apple's "A18" will be on N3P, not N3E, but otherwise the predicted iPhone sequence is as good a guess as we can make.

On TSMC's naming, just to be clear, the "A" stands for angstrom (10 angstrom = 1 nanometer) and should technically be an Å -- in the age of Unicode, there's no reason why TSMC can't simply use Å instead of A, but I suppose the marketing people objected to that. But we can hope that, when it's all official and not just a tech-conference slide for people who all know that A = Å, maybe TSMC will use Å instead of A...
Click to expand...
I think, the marketing people there are just ignorant or lazy. There are still lots of occasions of using “um” for micrometer, when it should be “µm.” On the Mac it has always been relatively easy to create these characters, but on Windows it can be a pain, especially if there is no keypad (cf. ALT + 4-key keypad sequence).
 
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