TSMC will manufacture Apple’s upcoming “M2 Pro” and “M3” chips based on its 3nm process, according to Taiwanese industry publication DigiTimes.
“Apple is supposed to have reserved TSMC capacity for its upcoming 3nm M3 and M2 Pro processors,” DigiTimes said in a report focusing on competition between chip makers such as TSMC and Samsung to secure 3nm chip orders. . As expected, the report said that TSMC will start production in 3 nm chip volume in the second half of 2022.
In his latest newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said he expects the M2 Pro to be used on the 14-inch MacBook Pro, the 16-inch MacBook Pro and a high-end Mac mini. As for the M3, Gurman expects the chip to be used in an upgraded 13-inch MacBook Air, a brand new 15-inch MacBook Air, a new iMac, and potentially a new 12-inch MacBook.
In all likelihood, the M2 Max would also be manufactured based on a 3 nm process in this scenario. This chip would be suitable for higher-end MacBook Pro and Mac Studio configurations if Apple decides to upgrade this computer over the next year.
While the M3 was widely expected to have 3 nm, it’s more notable that the M2 Pro could be as well, as the standard M2 chip that debuted on the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro remains based on TSMC 5 nm. process. Both the M1 and M1 Pro chips share the same process, so the M2 and M2 Pro being built with different processes would represent a change of direction for Apple’s silicon on the Mac.
Vadim Yuryev, host of the Max Tech YouTube channel, has firmly expressed his view that the M2 Pro will indeed be 3 nm in a series of tweets over the past few weeks. In the past, Yuryev accurately revealed that the Mac Studio’s M1 Ultra chip would actually be two M1 Max chips connected as a single chip.
If the 3 nm report is accurate, the performance delta between M2 Pro and M2 could be even greater than between M1 Pro and M1. However, it is worth tempering expectations until no additional reports corroborate that the M2 Pro chip is 3 nm.