Apple Has Reportedly Secured TSMC’s Entire N3 Supply For Upcoming A17 Bionic, M3 SoCs

It appears that Apple has taken a strategic move to secure the supply chain of its mobile processors; it has reportedly secured TSMC’s entire supply of N3 nodes for the upcoming A17 Bionic and M3 SoCs.

The N3 node is a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company or TSMC’s fabrication process technology used in designing and producing the processors. According to reports, the N3 node is used by Apple for acing 5nm+-chips that rely heavily on arithmetic and comparatively lesser on cache memory.

This new N3 node technology is expected to boost the overall energy efficiency of mobile processors, as well as offer better performance than ever seen before. Additionally, the N3 node is more powerful and heavily focused on providing power to high-end applications as well as for consumers.

The N3 node is capable of providing a 15% increase in power efficiency and up to a 20% increase in performance from the existing 5nm+-chips. Furthermore, the N3 node is said to have the potential to deliver performance up to twice the current 5nm+ process.

It has been speculated that the A17 Bionic SoC and M3 chips will be utilizing the next-generation N3 node as these SoCs are expected to be used in Apple’s upcoming iPhones and iPads. Apple’s decision to use the N3 node could lead to a potentially major boost in performance on these devices once they come out to the market.

Apart from the technology considerations, Apple’s move towards securing the N3 node supply from TSMC could also be seen as a strategic decision; Apple seeks to ensure that its upcoming devices benefit from a steady supply of processors produced by TSMC. Apple’s ability to secure the entire N3 supply puts the company at an even greater advantage, as it could mean that it won’t have to worry about any constraints due to increased competition between other manufacturers in the market.

This is only beneficial for Apple and its customers, allowing Apple devices to boast the latest and most powerful processors available, thus ensuring better performance and efficiency. While there is no conclusive confirmation from Apple over the matter yet, the reports certainly have major implications for both Apple and its customers.