Chip manufacturing has now formally entered the 3-nanometer era. The manufacturing of semiconductors that use this technique has begun at companies like Samsung and TSMC. TSMC will soon begin supplying Apple with 3nm CPUs for the iPhone 15 series. Even though this condition is favorable in terms of performance and energy efficiency, its cost-related effects have already started. Wafer costs at TSMC doubled from 7nm to 3nm manufacture. Many rumors claimed that Apple would significantly raise the price of the entire iPhone series before the new
iPhone 14 series was released this year.
However, after the release, the price of the
iPhone 14 series did increase, but the price increase was not significant, and the hardware of the new machine was upgraded at the same time. Additionally, the intensity is relatively low.
Specs
In the chip industry,
Samsung has always been TSMC's rival, but in the 7nm, 5nm, and 4nm processes, TSMC has destroyed Samsung Electronics. Additionally, because Samsung's 5nm, 4nm, and 3nm GAA foundry yield rates are too low, many of Samsung's partners have defected to TSMC, most notably Qualcomm and Nvidia.
The Snapdragon 8 constructed using Samsung's 5nm process has reversed the 5nm process.
The Snapdragon 8+ produced by TSMC significantly outperforms the Snapdragon 8 produced by Samsung using its 5n nanometer process in terms of performance and power consumption, forcing Qualcomm to turn over any subsequent orders to TSMC.
This is mainly because the transistor density of Samsung's 5nm process differs by 35% from TSMC's 5nm process.
It suffices to show how severe
Samsung's foundry issues are. TSMC still has a lot of technical benefits in terms of reliability. Manufacturers continue to choose TSMC to employ the 3nm process of the original FinFET technology, despite Samsung having announced the world's first launch and developing a new GAA process.
Wafer Costs at TSMC Double from 7nm to 3nm Production.
The world's top chip foundry, TSMC, will use a cutting-edge process node to manufacture the A17 Bionic chip that
Apple created for the iPhone 15 series. Defined, a chip is more powerful and energy-efficient. The lower the process node number, the smaller the transistors utilized in a chip, allowing more transistors inside a chip. Every year, as a result of this process, more sophisticated processors appear.
Beginning in 2025, 2nm chips are planned from TSMC and
Samsung, and 1 nm chips may even appear by 2030. Although these advancements have many benefits, they also have a price. The most recent reports state that TSMC intends to price 3nm wafers at more than $20,000. Wafer costs increased by 60% from $10,000 per wafer to $16,000 per wafer when the foundry switched from 7 nm to 5 nm.
