TSMC Expected to Begin Volume Production of 5nm-Based A14 Chips in April Ahead of iPhone 12 Models

[Cosmosent]

To Apple,

Please make sure you "comprehensively verify the Perf"of the Perf Controller (i.e., CPU Scheduler) BEFORE committing to Silicon !

For those who don't know, the A10, with its simplified Perf Controller design, is Rock Solid !

The A11 & A12, with their fancier & fancier designs, NOT so !

The A13's Perf Controller is almost as good as the A10's Perf Controller.

 

[styk]

5nm is incredible.

Incredible? Certainly. It almost seems magical to me. I graduated from college in 1983 with a degree in Computer Engineering. At the time sub micron devices were being worked on, and not yet available. A micron is 1000 nm.

 

[UltimateSyn]

I'd like to see more companies making their own version of Samsung's Dex. Phones are so powerful that they really could replace our laptops and computers.

Place your phone in a dock which is connected to a monitor, attach or connect a keyboard and mouse, and boom you're ready to go.

If Apple adds trackpad and full external monitor support (changing the resolution to fit the display rather than just mirroring the iPad) to iPadOS, then the iPhone could presumably do the same thing outputting iPadOS style apps to an external monitor. Man, that would be amazing.

 

[notengoojotas]

TSMC will begin volume production of 5nm-based A14 chips for iPhone 12 models in April, according to industry sources cited by DigiTimes. A-series chip production usually begins around April-May, so the process appears to be on schedule.

TSMC has been Apple's exclusive supplier of A-series chips since 2016, and its chips have gradually become smaller as it continues to refine its manufacturing process, benefitting performance, battery life, and thermal management on iPhones.

• A10 chip: 16nm
• A11 chip: 10nm
• A12 chip: 7nm
• A13 chip: 7nm+
• A14 chip: 5nm expected

Last year, TSMC announced a $25 billion investment in its new 5nm node technology in a bid to remain Apple's exclusive supplier of processors.

Apple plans to introduce four high-end iPhone 12 models with 5G support in the fall, including one 5.4-inch model, two 6.1-inch models, and one 6.7-inch model, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. A new lower-end iPhone is also widely rumored to launch in the first half of 2020, but it is expected to have an A13 chip.

Article Link: TSMC Expected to Begin Volume Production of 5nm-Based A14 Chips in April Ahead of iPhone 12 Models

Shouldn’t it be called iPhone 11s?
Why is everyone calling it 12? Have I missed a report or something?

 

[JRobinsonJr]

For interesting but pointless context, the COVID-19 coronavirus is roughly 120nm in diameter.

Trivia is never pointless!

 

[cmaier]

Shouldn’t it be called iPhone 11s?
Why is everyone calling it 12? Have I missed a report or something?

Why should it be called iPhone 11s? Some sort of naming law I missed?

 

[HandITOVER]

SMH.

 

[Emanuel Rodriguez]

It drops down to Ångstrom territory - Silicon atoms are about 2Å (0.2nm) and my understanding is '5nm' chips don't (necessarily) actually have 5nm sized transistors, so there's potentially more room than it first appears. Don't think we will run out of road this decade at least, even without a significant breakthrough or new materials etc.

There are some games played as to where on the transistor they measure, so yes. 5nm TSMC is not necessary the same thing as 5nm Intel.

 

[Dave-Z]

In December 2019, Intel announced plans for 1.4 nm production in 2029.

With Intel's track record we can expect a release in 2039.

 

[Piggie]

Please everyone look into what this 5nm etc number actually means in reality before thinking it's as simple as the headline means.
It's no way near as straightforward as this.

 

[DeepIn2U]

What happens after let’s say 1mm?

(I meant nm of course)

we can finally reach 1.1 Gigawatts!
PS: it’s pronounced Jiggawats as per Back2TheFuture so to avoid another net word pronunciation battle. J/k.

 

[UltimaKilo]

What happens after let’s say 1mm?

(I meant nm of course)

They really have quite some time to get there and 1nm creates too much leakage to ever be a viable size. You’ll also be disappointed to find out that these aren't REALLY 5nm in size. TSMC‘s 5nm is less dense than Intel’s 10nm. So eventually we’ll get to 7nm, then 5 followed by 3.5. By then manufacturers will need to find new materials and we might start seeing an increase in size again.

 

[I7guy]

The A14 is JUST 17% faster. The Apple SoC is reaching EOL.

What?

 

[cmaier]

1nm creates too much leakage to ever be a viable size

LOL. I remember when they said that about quarter micron

With finfets and other 3D structures that allow one to pinch off the field from multiple directions, they can likely easily get past 1nm.

 

[mi7chy]

Too bad iPadOS/iOS won't fully utilize it.

 

[DeepIn2U]

It drops down to Ångstrom territory - Silicon atoms are about 2Å (0.2nm) and my understanding is '5nm' chips don't (necessarily) actually have 5nm sized transistors, so there's potentially more room than it first appears. Don't think we will run out of road this decade at least, even without a significant breakthrough or new materials etc.

someone has been brushing up on their Lithography. Dr Kelly III of IBM mention back in 2003 that the G5 130nm cpu has a gate length of under 50nm and a height of less than 13Ångstroms. I still have no idea what he was talking about yet that word is coming close to being common knowledge amongst computer geeks in under 20yrs almost.

 

[cmaier]

someone has been brushing up on their Lithography. Dr Kelly III of IBM mention back in 2003 that the G5 130nm cpu has a gate length of under 50nm and a height of less than 13Ångstroms. I still have no idea what he was talking about yet that word is coming close to being common knowledge amongst computer geeks in under 20yrs almost.

Of course gate length and height, as he meant it, no longer are relevant given that we are using finfets instead of lateral devices.

 

[dampfnudel]

For interesting but pointless context, the COVID-19 coronavirus is roughly 120nm in diameter.

So that explains why some people get as hot as old MacBooks.
[automerge]1583959340[/automerge]

5nm is incredible.

Yeah, it’s unbelievable to think how far we’ve come in ten years.

 

[oneMadRssn]

There are some games played as to where on the transistor they measure, so yes. 5nm TSMC is not necessary the same thing as 5nm Intel.

And 5nm from either company does not mean their transistor is 12x smaller than they were compared to the 60nm process transistors. In other words, they've both shifted how they measure things over time as well.

 

[notengoojotas]

Why should it be called iPhone 11s? Some sort of naming law I missed?

Ok, I see you are just going to be a troll about it. Have it your way.

 

[Duncan-UK]

I was under the impression that the nanometer size referred to the gap between transistors as opposed to the size of the transistors themselves. Has this changed?

 

[cmaier]

Ok, I see you are just going to be a troll about it. Have it your way.

How is that being a troll? I'm serious, you propose it should be 11s. Why? I don't get it.

 

[m0sher]

What happens after let’s say 1mm?

(I meant nm of course)

We may have to move to ‘diamond’ filaments and prices will go up exorbitantly. Ohms law.

 

[0924487]

We will soon reach a point where quantum mechanics kicks in. Electrons will bleed from one trace to an adjacent trace, aka cross talk, due to the uncertainty principle. Effectively causing data corruption. We don’t want 1 + 1 to be equal to “probably 2, but not always”...

If that’s the case, OS Kernels would need to be rewritten to account for this behaviour. The only solution I can think of is verification. However, there will be a point where the cost of verification outweighs the extra benefit from smaller lithographies (7nm, 5nm, etc. are called the lithographies of a chip).

 

[notengoojotas]

How is that being a troll? I'm serious, you propose it should be 11s. Why? I don't get it.

You’re absolutely right. Hey, why not 20 like Samsung did? Since the last decade of iPhone naming doesn’t help us at all for reference, sure.

The only time Apple skipped the S was with the iPhone 8. (I’m not talking about the 5C, the SE or other special or odd iPhones, I’m talking about the main phones.)

But you knew all this before posting, thus my comment. If you are reading Macrumors is very likely you know by now Apple naming conventions. And I know, I know, they are not the most logical guys around (iPhone Xr? One letter is a roman numeral but the other one isn’t?) but they are somewhat predictable with certain things.

And that’s why I asked who started this iPhone 12 name thing. Someone, Kuo, MacRumors, 9to5 or else, coined this iPhone 12 name when the most logical name would be iPhone 11S, since the current one is the 11. I just want to know the source of the 12 name, maybe there was a report saying that this is the name, and I missed it. I don’t want to argue with you. I just want to know where the iPhone 12 name originated.