For years, TSMC has been Apple’s Silicon processor supplier. The two companies have worked very closely with each other and have mutually benefited from this association. Now, the processor manufacturing company is taking this association further by agreeing to ‘risk produce’ 3nm chips for Apple this year.
Risk production is the process in which a particular batch of products is manufactured with the intention of checking its quality, verifying the fact whether it meets the company’s expectations or not, and figuring out whether this could be launched in the market as a final product. If the risk production yields positive results, the full volume production of the chips will begin next year.
In July last year, there came a piece of news that suggested that the company had almost finalized the details of its 3-nanometer processor technology. Now, the reports almost confirm the fact that TSMC has put together a proper schedule to start the risk production of the 3nm chips. Reports released earlier had pointed out that Apple had obtained the entire 3nm production capacity. Therefore, it is most likely that Apple Silicon will be made for Macs and iOS.
During TSMC’s earnings conference call, CEO CC Wei assured that the development of the N3 technology is happening at a good pace. He further stated that customer engagement for the smartphone app and HPC has been quite high. The response they are getting for N3, he stated, was much better than the kind they received for N5 and N7 in their initial stages.
While test production of the chips is yet to happen, TSMC is quite confident that they will get the expected results out of the test. If things go according to the plan, the mass production of the chips will take place in the second half of 2022.