Tuesday, May 21st 2024
Apple COO Meets with TSMC CEO to Reserve First Batch of 2 nm Allocation
Apple is locked in a fierce competition to stay ahead in the client AI applications race, and needs access to the latest foundry process at TSMC to built its future-generation SoCs on. The company's COO, Jeff Williams, reportedly paid a visit to TSMC CEO CC Wei to discuss Apple's foundry allocation of the Taiwanese foundry's 2 nm-class silicon fabrication process, for its next-generation M-series and A-series SoCs powering its future generations of iPhone, iPad, and Macs. Taiwan based industry observer, Economic Daily, which broke this story, says that it isn't just an edge with performance and efficiency that Apple is after, but also leadership in generative AI, and client AI applications. The company has reportedly invested over $100 billion in generative AI research and development over the past 5 years.
Apple's latest silicon, the M4 SoC, which debuted with the iPad Pro earlier this month, is built on TSMC's N3E (3 nm-class) node, and it's widely expected that the rest of the M4 line of SoCs for Macs, and the "A18," could be built on the same process, which would cover Apple for the rest of 2024, going into the first half of 2025. TSMC is expected to commence mass-production of chips on its 2 nm node in 2025, which is why Apple is in the TSMC boss's office to seek the first foundry allocation.
Sources:
Tom's Hardware, Economic Daily
Apple's latest silicon, the M4 SoC, which debuted with the iPad Pro earlier this month, is built on TSMC's N3E (3 nm-class) node, and it's widely expected that the rest of the M4 line of SoCs for Macs, and the "A18," could be built on the same process, which would cover Apple for the rest of 2024, going into the first half of 2025. TSMC is expected to commence mass-production of chips on its 2 nm node in 2025, which is why Apple is in the TSMC boss's office to seek the first foundry allocation.
13 Comments on Apple COO Meets with TSMC CEO to Reserve First Batch of 2 nm Allocation
Apple are still insanely profitable, have the strongest phone brand and their enclosed proprietary tech environment that allows them to milk users who don't know any better for $$$. Even if they're not growing anymore. It's still the least overvalued of the big stocks imo due to that.
Not apple, but on my old one plus 6, I have been still leaving it powered on unused, and I noticed with wifi and mobile data off, its drain was still mediocre, I thought not much of it as just assumed its an old creaking battery. I then uninstalled these apps, as I didnt want them conflicting with any live devices.
Amazon
BBC sport
Discord
Telegram
Whatsapp
Thats it nothing else, charge duration went from around 3 days to 9-10 days. In addition the phone previously had problems with memory management, shutting down apps frequently, even launcher getting forcefully restarted and that all vanished, these few apps must have been constantly running crap in the background even without networking. I wonder how many buy a new phone thinking issues are hardware related but instead its down to rogue software.
This AI stuff will just be more stuff running in the background.
And no, I am NOT an Apple fanboi/user, just a very happy investor !
@chrcoluk - re: battery issues
I recently got a Pixel 8 Pro and from day 1, I was constantly running low on battery power even with light use throughout the day...
Then I discovered the cause (or at least part of it): It shipped direct from Gooogly with every single installed app (alot of bloatwarez) running at 100% power capability, all permissions enabled and ZERO optimizations whatsoever.......
So I spent the better part of a day going through EVERY single installed app, and deleted/uninstalled/disabled everything I didn't need/want etc....and whahlah, now it runs all day long with lots of calls, texts, teams meetings, videos, email & surfin, and usually has ~65% left when I plug it in at bedtime :)
So yea, software battery use/mgmt is the key IMHO :)
My guess is Apple will suffer, as they are already in China and other markets recently. In a bad economy, people probably realise more they don't need a 1K phone. That being said, I'm sure they'll still make plenty of money.