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Apple's chipmaking partner TSMC has kicked off pilot production of chips built on its 3nm process, known as N3, according to Taiwanese supply chain publication DigiTimes.

m3-feature-black.jpg

The report, citing unnamed industry sources, claims that TSMC will move the process to volume production by the fourth quarter of 2022 and start shipping 3nm chips to customers like Apple and Intel in the first quarter of 2023.

As usual, this process advancement should allow for performance and power efficiency improvements, which can lead to faster speeds and/or longer battery life on future iPhones and Macs. The first series of Apple silicon Macs powered by M1 chips already deliver industry-leading performance per watt while running impressively quiet and cool.

The first Apple devices with 3nm chips will likely debut in 2023, including iPhone 15 models with an A17 chip and Apple silicon Macs with M3 chips — all names are tentative. The Information's Wayne Ma last month reported that some of the M3 chips will have up to four dies, which the report said could translate into those chips having up to a 40-core CPU, compared to the 8-core M1 chip and 10-core M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

In the meantime, Macs with M2 chips and iPhone 14 models are expected to use chips based on TSMC's N4 process, which is another iteration of its 5nm process.

Article Link: Macs With 'M3' Chips Expected to Use TSMC's 3nm Chip Technology With Test Production Reportedly Underway
 
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Lounge vibes 05

macrumors 68040
May 30, 2016
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I expect it to be quite a while until we see this in Macs.
Pretty sure we’re going to see a very similar rollout as we have with the M1.
November 2020: M1 introduced in the low-end products.
April 2021: M1 expanded to more mid range products.
October 2021: M1pro and max introduced for higher end products.
First half of 2022: M1 brought to the highest end desktops.
I expect the same to happen with the M2 next year, introduced in the new colorful MacBook first, then a couple months later brought to the mid range, then throughout 2023 brought to the higher end products.
M3 as well, introduced in the lower end products in late 2023, spread to the rest throughout 2024.
So we still have a while
 

Adarna

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Jan 1, 2015
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It looks like each generation of M chip is released every 18-24 months
 
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CWallace

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Aug 17, 2007
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I expect it to be quite a while until we see this in Macs.
Pretty sure we’re going to see a very similar rollout as we have with the M1.

From Wayne Ma's report, we may not have an M2 Pro and M2 MAX. Instead, there could just be M2 (Staten) and then a dual-die M2 Duo.

He reported M3 would have a complete family, with M3 (Ibiza), M3 Pro (Lobos) and M3 MAX (Palma).
 

Spock

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Jan 6, 2002
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Can’t wait!

I’m planning on getting a MacBook Air to use as my computer for when I travel and will definitely hold out to get an M3 now

I’m using the new M1 iMac as my main computer and it’s so much faster than my Intel iMac
My work laptop is a maxed out Intel 13-inch MacBook Pro and my baseline MacBook Air I use at home destroys it. Its kinda sad really.
 

Tagbert

macrumors 603
Jun 22, 2011
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Am I going to be buying new Macs every year like iPhones? Hopefully Apple will introduce an upgrade program.
You don't need to buy new Macs every year. You don't need to buy new iPhones every year.

Just because Apple has new products each year, doesn't mean that we need to spend more money just to get the new shiny with incremental improvements. If you wait you can save money and when you do upgrade, the changes are actually noticeable.
 
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