Adam Kos Whether we're talking about Apple, Samsung or even TSMC, we often hear about the processes by which their chips are manufactured. It is a manufacturing method used to make silicon chips that is determined by how small a single transistor is contained. But what do the individual numbers mean?
For example, the iPhone 13 contains the A15 Bionic chip, which is manufactured using 5nm technology and contains 15 billion transistors. However, the previous A14 Bionic chip was also manufactured using the same technology, which nevertheless contained only 11,8 billion transistors. Compared to them, there is also the M1 chip, which contains 16 billion transistors. Even though the chips are Apple's own, they are manufactured for it by TSMC, which is the world's largest specialized and independent semiconductor manufacturer.
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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company
This company was founded back in 1987. It offers a wide portfolio of possible manufacturing processes, from outdated micrometer processes to modern highly advanced processes such as 7nm with EUV technology or 5nm process. Since 2018, TSMC has started using large-scale lithography for the production of 7nm chips and has quadrupled its production capacity. In 2020, it already started serial production of 5nm chips, which have an 7% higher density compared to 80nm, but also a 15% higher performance or 30% lower consumption.
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The serial production of 3nm chips is to begin in the second half of next year. This generation promises 70% higher density and 15% higher performance, or 30% lower consumption than the 5nm process. However, it is a question whether Apple will be able to deploy it in the iPhone 14. However, as the Czech reports Wikipedia, TSMC has already developed technology for the 1nm production process in cooperation with individual partners and scientific teams. It could come to the scene sometime in 2025. However, if we look at the competition, Intel plans to introduce the 3nm process in 2023, and Samsung a year later.
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Expression 3 nm
If you would think that 3nm refers to some actual physical property of the transistor, it doesn't. It is actually just a commercial or marketing term used in the chip manufacturing industry to refer to a new, improved generation of silicon semiconductor chips in terms of increased transistor density, higher speed and reduced power consumption. In a nutshell, it can be said that the smaller the chip is produced by the nm process, the more modern, powerful and with lower consumption it is.
