Apple wants to lessen its reliance on chip designer Qualcomm
Apple did not have confidence that Intel would be able to deliver a 5G modem chip that could replace Qualcomm’s component
At one time, Apple thought so highly of Qualcomm’s 5G modem chips that it pulled out of a deal it had with Intel to produce a 5G modem chip. Apple paid Qualcomm an undisclosed amount rumored to range anywhere from $4.5 billion to $6 billion to settle all of the legal issues it had with the company at the time. Apple reportedly did not have faith in Intel’s ability to deliver a quality 5G modem chip in time.
While Apple designs the A-series chipsets that it uses for the iPhone and iPad for many, many years, designing a modem chip is arguably more complicated since it must be backward compatible with older connectivity standards such as 2G and 3G, up to the more currently used 4G and 5G platforms. The reason why Apple is waiting until 2023 to use its new 5G
modem chip is due to all of the time it will take global carriers to verify and test the new component.
Nikkei says that TSMC will build next year’s A16 Bionic using a 4nm process node instead of 3nm
The Nikkei report also takes a shot at answering a major question regarding the chips that Apple will use on next year’s iPhone 14 series. Originally, TSMC was hoping to have started mass production of its 3nm process node in time to use it to build the A16 Bionic. But earlier this year, TSMC admitted that the complexity of using 3nm was forcing a delay in the volume production of 3nm chips and as a result, volume production at 3nm would not start until the second half of 2023.
But the Nikkei says that the iPhone 14 series will be powered by chips using TSMC’s 4nm process. As for the 3nm node, Apple will use it first to power some iPad models next year before it is employed to build the A17 Bionic which will power the iPhone 15 lineup.
Putting it simply, the lower the process node number, the higher the number of transistors that fit inside square mm. The higher the number of transistors, the more powerful and energy-efficient a chip is.
