Well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the Chinese company TSMC will not produce processors using 3- and 4-nm technology until 2023. For the current year, the production of chips using only 5-nm technology has been announced, as before. It is TSMC that produces processors for the iPhone, so it is expected that the Apple A16 chip for the iPhone 14 will not be made using the latest technology.
The use of the same technological process as the previous generation of processors limits the growth of productivity and energy efficiency of new solutions, the expert said. In general, for Apple atypical use of processors made by the same technology for three consecutive years (A14 and A15 were also 5-nanometer). With the next generation iPhone (at least the flagship models), the company prefers to install the latest chips. The source also notes that Apple is unlikely to be able to find another manufacturer that would provide it with 3- and 4-nm processors this year, until the release of the iPhone 14.
Min-Chi Kuo also talked about the processors for the new MacBook Air, which is also scheduled for release this fall. And here the forecasts are not happy: in his opinion, the new laptops will receive M1 chips, as well as the current model. The new M2 processor will not be ready until next year.