Apple A16 Bionic has been designed, TSMC will start mass production in 2022Q2
Apple will launch the iPhone 14 series this year, which will be equipped with the A16 Bionic. Recently, netizen @Shadow_Leak said that Apple has completed the design phase of the A16 Bionic. Normally, in a few months, the A16 Bionic will be mass-produced.
In addition, Apple has accepted the price increase request from TSMC and has contracted TSMC’s 120,000 to 150,000 4nm production capacity to ensure the supply of A16 Bionic. It is understood that TSMC will start mass production at Fab 18 in the second half of this year. Last year’s A15 Bionic started mass production in May, and the A16 Bionic should not be too different. Due to continued chip shortages and rising costs, TSMC has increased prices on a large scale in the past period, and the cost will be even higher due to the use of more advanced manufacturing processes.
TSMC’s N4 process is optimized based on the existing N5 process, which can provide more PPA (power, performance, area) advantages, but maintain the same design rules, design infrastructure, SPICE simulation program, and IP. Due to the further expansion of EUV lithography tool equipment on the N4 process, the number of masks, process steps, risks, and costs can also be reduced.
This time, the A16 Bionic is likely to use TSMC’s N4P process. As the third major improvement of the N5 process node, the performance is 11% higher than the earliest N5 process and 6% higher than the original N4 process. Compared with the N5 process, there is also a 22% increase in energy efficiency and a 6% increase in transistor density.
