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According to reports from foreign media, after adopting TSMC’s exclusive foundry supplier with EUV technology 7nm enhanced process for Apple’s A13 processor in 2019, the A14 processor to be launched in 2020 will adopt TSMC’s 5nm process, which coincides with TSMC’s new process launch schedule.

Since the A9, Apple’s A-series processors have been exclusively manufactured by TSMC. The type of process used for Apple processors is closely related to TSMC’s process upgrade cycle. Currently, although Samsung’s 7nm process is also in mass production, its progress is not as good as TSMC’s. Coupled with Apple’s strategy to reduce reliance on Samsung, the likelihood that Apple’s A-series processors will continue to be exclusively manufactured by TSMC during the two years from 2019 to 2020 is very high.

The A13 (tentative name) processor that Apple is about to launch in 2019 is expected to remain at the 7nm node. However, it uses an enhanced version of the 7nm process with EUV technology, thus optimizing power consumption and transistor density. According to data previously released by TSMC, the enhanced 7nm process can bring a power consumption improvement of 6% to 12%, as well as a 20% improvement in transistor density.

After the enhanced 7nm process completes mass production, TSMC’s next generation advanced process will move to the 5nm EUV process, which will be TSMC’s second generation process using EUV technology. The number of photomasks for producing processors will increase from 5 layers for the 7nm enhanced version to 14 layers. Furthermore, according to data provided by TSMC, testing with ARM’s Cortex-A72 core shows that the 5nm EUV process will bring a speed improvement of 14.7% to 17.1% compared to the previous generation process, as well as a 1.8 to 1.86 times increase in transistor density.

At TSMC’s fourth-quarter 2018 earnings call, TSMC’s CFO and spokesperson, Lih-Mei Chen, stated that although TSMC reduced its capital expenditure by about $1 billion in 2019, investments in advanced processes would not decrease. This is to align with the mass production of the 7nm enhanced process in 2019, as well as the trial production of the 5nm EUV process in the second quarter and the official mass production of the 5nm EUV process in the first half of 2020. This timing coincides with the mass production schedule for Apple’s A14 (tentative name) processor in the first half of 2020, which seems to indicate that TSMC has almost secured the orders for the A14 processor.

Source: Technology News

Image Statement: Cover image sourced from a licensed image library, Pai Xin Wang.

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