TSMC Details Potential iPhone 12 A14 Performance and Upcoming 3nm Process

[Kabeyun]

3nm is the wavelength of a bloody X-ray. Let’s step back for a second and marvel at that. Just amazing.

 

[5232152]

Performance gain of 15% has nothing to do with the use of 5nm over 7nm.

 

[cmaier]

Performance gain of 15% has nothing to do with the use of 5nm over 7nm.

It certainly has *something* to do with that. It allows the transistors to be slightly smaller, which slightly reduces gate capacitances. This also allows moving transistors slightly closer together, which slightly reduces wire capacitances and resistances. Assuming wire thicknesses also got a little thinner, then parasitic cross-capacitances will not go up by enough to cancel out these effects. And assuming channel doping hasn’t been degraded, then drive strength will be at least the same as before. So the transistor switching time will decrease, and signal propagation times will decrease. And the performance will increase.

All of that assumes apple decides to emphasize performance. Instead, they can keep things the same size, and then leakage currents will presumably be decreased, meaning less static power dissipation. Selectively shrinking some gates while maintaining spacing would also permit decreasing dynamic power. Wire aspect ratio changes could reduce parasitic capacitances which would also help dynamic power. Etc.

 

[x-evil-x]

Yes I want color leaks so I can plan ahead and know exactly what I want so I'm ready day one of release/pre-order. (I take a long to decide on things if I'm going to be stuck with it for a while!)

you have your phone in a case?

 

[JM]

you have your phone in a case?

Sometimes yes sometimes no I'm one of those weirdos that like to go caseless when I can to appreciate the aesthetics.

 

[Thrutheroofnunderground]

Bring on the iPhone 12. TSMC has surpassed Intel in state of the art lithography processes. Apple must be paying a premium to have the first consumer device with chips manufactured on the 5nm node.

It's probably mostly because of the quantities of chips Apple will be purchasing for their phones.

 

[x-evil-x]

Sometimes yes sometimes no I'm one of those weirdos that like to go caseless when I can to appreciate the aesthetics.

yea ive been case less since iPhone 4. never liked feeling all the edges on the glass while using it. much nicer without anything on it.

 

[JM]

yea ive been case less since iPhone 4. never liked feeling all the edges on the glass while using it. much nicer without anything on it.

Excellent point. The rounded edges of the 6 onwards made it more pleasant to interact with screen swiping since there wasn't that edge catching..... but it made the phone more phone to falling out of the hand.

Trade-offs, trade-offs.....

But now I don't think that's what you were saying at all 😆 You just don't like the case edge... yeah? Me either.

 

[HarryWild]

What happens when they run out of nm's?

Up the clock speed of the CPU! Apple chip run at a very slow clock speed!

 

[cmaier]

Up the clock speed of the CPU! Apple chip run at a very slow clock speed!

1) no they don’t
2) upping the frequency is a terrible idea, because power consumption/heat dissipation is linearly dependent on clock frequency. And to achieve higher clock frequencies you would likely need to increase power supply voltage, and power consumption/heat dissipation is proportional to the *square* of voltage.
3) you can’t just arbitrarily increase clock frequency. Signals propagate at around 6 or 7 ps/mm. Transistors charge or discharge based on the gate capacitances they drive. These are reasons that you want to shrink transistors and wire lengths.