14 DAY TRIAL // TSMC is the world’s largest dedicated independent semiconductor company and it is gearing up to start production of A11 chipsets for new iPhone models. The Taiwan-based company intends to start production in April and manufacture 50 million chips before July, a recent report revealed.
The A11 chips produced by TSMC will be incorporated in the new iPhone 8 and the iPhone 7s, the successor to last year’s iPhone 7. Moreover, the A11 chip will be based on the 10nm FinFET process, same as Samsung’s Exynos 8895 SoC or Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 835 platform.
However, this isn’t the first TSMC chip to be built on the 10nm process. Other chips on the same process were produced in the fall of 2016, while they started shipping to MediaTek and HiSilicon Technologies in the first quarter of this year. The production and delivery schedule for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 7s should be the same as for last year’s models, with the launch date set for September.
But recent reports have revealed that only a few iPhone 8 units could be released during the first month of fall and a larger batch of devices might be made available at a later date.
100 million A11 chips will be produced this year
In terms of production, TSMC will deliver 100 million A11 chips before the end of 2017, most of which will be included in the upcoming iPhones. TSMC is also the exclusive manufacturer of Apple A10 SoC built on the 16nm process and powers the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
The more advanced A11 chip will surely make this year’s iPhones some of the most powerful smartphones on the market. Aside from this, the iPhone 8 will mark the ten-year anniversary since the first iPhone was announced and reveal a new design for Apple smartphones, one that includes tiny bezels and an OLED display.