Apple's iPhone 14 chip may not be based on the 3nm process as TSMC faces manufacturing challenge

Rumors were rife that the upcoming iPhone 14 series would be based on the 3nm Apple Bionic A16 chip, and while the Cupertino tech giant will indeed use the A16 in its new iPhone 14, the chip may not be as powerful as Apple would like. According to a new report published by the Information, the new A16 chip is unlikely to be built on a 3nm process as semiconductor giant TSMC is facing a lot of challenges developing it.

Considering that the report is true, there won’t be any major differences between the new A16 chip and its predecessor, the Bionic A15 chip, which is built on a 5nm process. Some of Apple’s newest products, including the iPhone 13, iPad mini, are based on Apple’s A15 Bionic chip. And now that TSMC is facing challenges in producing the 3nm chip, the new iPhone 14 won’t be as attractive as it’d with a 3nm chip inside it.

While TSMC is expected to fully develop the 3nm process, what concerns its partners is that the semiconductor giant may not be able to mass-produce it leading to many phone manufacturers dropping their plans of using it on their smartphones. Unfortunately for Apple, it’ll have to settle on the same chip manufacturing process for the third time, including next year.

Meanwhile, iPhone 14 will probably become the most leaked phone of all time, the reason being the fact that leaks related to the smartphone have started appearing even before the release of its predecessor, the iPhone 13. You can check out key details about the upcoming iPhone 14 here.

via Pocketnow