Semiconductor OEM capacity is in short supply, and apple accepts TSMC‘s price rise

     As the first processor of the iPhone 14 series, apple is also actively preparing for a16. Of course, at this stage, it is more focused on production capacity, so it is inevitable to strengthen cooperation with TSMC.

     According to the latest news from the supply chain, the design of Apple‘s self-developed new generation a16 application processor has been finalized, and the chip will be delivered by TSMC 4nm n4p process. It is expected to enter mass production in TSMC Fab 18 plant in the second half of the year.

     As the foundry capacity of wafers is in short supply, Apple has accepted the price increase to ensure the capacity, including the capacity of 120000-150000 pieces of 4nm of TSMC (the average price in 2022 is about 8-10% higher than that in 2021), but the source said that because it is the largest customer, the increase will be lower than that of other advanced process customers.

     According to the previous statement, Apple will launch two a16 bionic processors, both of which will be 6-core processor architecture, but they will be differentiated according to the number of drawing cores, support 5g dual band and new generation lpddr5, wifi6e and other technical specifications, and will adopt TSMC 4nm process.

    In addition to a16, apple is also preparing m2, which will change all MAC series to Apple silicon, which is self-developed, in 2022. The collocation of M2 series processors and MAC series product lines is more clear, which will help to speed up the generation alternation of product lines. The development of Apple‘s M2 series processor is coming to an end. Among them, M2 processor is expected to be launched in the second half of 2022, and M2 pro and m2max are expected to be launched in the first half of 2023.

    Before that, the supply chain also showed that in order to reduce the demand for Qualcomm, Apple will use self-developed baseband chips next year, while TSMC will still be their exclusive OEM, which will use the 5nm process with an annual production capacity of 120000 chips.

    In fact, Qualcomm has hinted that Apple‘s self-developed baseband will be put into use soon. At the same time, they also hinted that its share in iPhone baseband orders will drop to about 20% in 2023.

    Previously, Guo Mingxuan, an analyst at Tianfeng international, said in an investor report that Apple plans to carry a self-developed 5g baseband chip in the iPhone from 2023.

Disclaimer: This article is transferred from other platforms and does not represent the views and positions of this site. If there is infringement or objection, please contact us to delete. thank you!     矽源特科技ChipSourceTek