TFI Securities analyst Min-Chi Kuo confirmed the information that the new Apple A16 chip will be built on a 5-nm TSMC process, like last year’s A15 Bionic.
Kuo refers to the publicly available TSMC roadmap, which indicates that production of 3-nm and 4-nm chips will begin no earlier than 2023. The analyst noted that the N4 process has no advantages over N5P, so the A16 chip will be built on the same process as the Bionic A15. In other words, Apple will name the chip for iPhone 14 Pro A16 just for marketing. This information also confirms rumors that the regular iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Max will receive last year’s A15 Bionic chip.
Kuo also said that the new MacBook Air will still use the 5-nm chip of the M1 family, as the faster and more advanced M2 chip will be released no earlier than 2023.