TSMC, the world’s largest Independent Foundry, is going to start production of Apple’s A14 Bionic chip. The A14 Bionic chip is going to be used for Apple iPhone 12 5G models.
If we can consider Apple’s on-time shipping of their iPhone 12, the chances are higher to get the new 5nm chip in it. The A14 chip is more advanced and faster than the A13 Bionic chip, which was used in iPhone 11 and iPhone SE (2020).
The major difference that comes with Bionic chip A13 and A14 is the size of the chip. The 7nm. A13 Bionic chip would fit 96.5 million transistors, whereas the A14 would fit around 171.3 million transistors. So, there would be 15 billion transistors inside the A14 Bionic chip, whereas the A13 has 8.5 billion transistors.
TSMC, also producing the 5nm chip Huawei Kirin 1020 SoC processor, but Huawei has its own problems in using the chipset from TSMC. This is due to export restrictions from the US to the Huawei company. On the other hand, Samsung is likely offering 7nm chip support to Huawei, but this would damage the flagship business for Huawei.
Interestingly, Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is going to become the first phones to have a 6nm chip. There is an unannounced chipset from Samsung featuring Exynos 992 chipset. Apple iPhone 12 would feature Snapdragon X60 5G as per reports from industry sources. This special modem is expected to support sub-6GHz and also mm wave 5G signals.
TSMC is also in plans to set up a factory in Arizona, but this does not make the costs of Apple any cheaper. The main reason is being, Apple’s phones are assembled in China. Still, TSMC’s plant takes three more years as per their scheduled time of opening the factory in the US.
