TSMC Reportedly Ahead of Schedule with 2 nm Trial Production at Kaohsiung Fab

[T0@st]

TSMC is reportedly making decent progress with its advanced 2 nm (N2) node—industry news pieces from earlier this month pointed to the initiation of production lines across three fabrication sites. Taiwan's Economic Daily News has kept close tabs on these trial runs—insiders have indicated that TSMC's Kaohsiung plant is capable of matching the Baoshan location's targeted manufacturing output (5000 wafers per month, 60 percent yield). Reports suggest that the Kaohsiung 2 nm trial production will start up later this month—much earlier than anticipated.

The Taiwanese chip foundry giant is taking on the challenge of meeting "greater than expected" demand for its new generation 2 nm product—TSMC chairman C.C. Wei has previously stated that its latest and greatest is more popular (pre-launch) with customers than older 3 nm lines. Apple is rumored to be first in line—not a big surprise since TSMC has (supposedly) rolled out the VVIP red carpet for them in recent times. The Economic Daily News article also mentions Qualcomm and MediaTek being next in the queue for N2. TSMC's best foundries are expected to initiate mass production by the end of 2025.



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[Space Lynx]

I have a feeling we will be seeing 2nm Apple products for the next 5-7 years. I just have a gut feeling they will really struggle with a smaller node. It will be interesting to see how Apple plays it off, or if they move to a 2 year release cycle for the main product line. My guess 2 year cycle will be implemented in about 18 months. I am honestly ok with this, it's a bit silly having a new iphone every year anyway.

 

[3valatzy]

I have a feeling we will be seeing 2nm Apple products for the next 5-7 years. I just have a gut feeling they will really struggle with a smaller node. It will be interesting to see how Apple plays it off, or if they move to a 2 year release cycle for the main product line. My guess 2 year cycle will be implemented in about 18 months. I am honestly ok with this, it's a bit silly having a new iphone every year anyway.

If true, Apple's revenues will begin to decline. No one will buy more of the same for so long periods.

 

[N/A]

I hope Nvidia and AMD release some products using N3 in 2026 and A16 in 2028.

 

[petr88]

I have a feeling we will be seeing 2nm Apple products for the next 5-7 years. I just have a gut feeling they will really struggle with a smaller node. It will be interesting to see how Apple plays it off, or if they move to a 2 year release cycle for the main product line. My guess 2 year cycle will be implemented in about 18 months. I am honestly ok with this, it's a bit silly having a new iphone every year anyway.

They will have to bring some new innovations not just new iphone

 

[Baba]

If true, Apple's revenues will begin to decline. No one will buy more of the same for so long periods.

I have a feeling we will be seeing 2nm Apple products for the next 5-7 years. I just have a gut feeling they will really struggle with a smaller node. It will be interesting to see how Apple plays it off, or if they move to a 2 year release cycle for the main product line. My guess 2 year cycle will be implemented in about 18 months. I am honestly ok with this, it's a bit silly having a new iphone every year anyway.

I haven't looked at cell phone's CPUs specs for at least a decade now. This converstation has never come up with anyone I know regardless of phone make. Apple doesn't need a node advancement to release new products. M3 and M4 are both on 3nm and M5 is also going to be on 3nm. This isn't AMD that can't improve performance unless it's a node change and hasn't added cores since 2019 to their ZEN CPU. Apple has been adding cores each generation. Meanwhile AMD is releasing a "new GPU" that's slower than last gen. How would you like to see these kind of improvements each year?

Benchmark Type	M3 Chip Performance	M4 Chip Performance (Improvement)
Single-core CPU	3,088	3,864 (+25.1%)
Multi-core CPU	11,711	15,288 (+30.5%)
Metal GPU	47,466	57,603 (+21.4%)

I hope Nvidia and AMD release some products using N3 in 2026 and A16 in 2028.

I'd rather they use some engineering and make a better product and not use the node as the main reason for increased performance.

 

[3valatzy]

20% performance improvement is a worthless generational improvement. No one will buy a new phone because of that.

You will need the planned obsolescence in order to force people to upgrade, or other functions - better cameras, more storage / memory, larger screens, higher resolution, etc.