Last week, we covered a detailed article on the fake benchmarks of the upcoming A17 Bionic chipset. Now recent reports are also confirming the same citing that Apple’s A17 Bionic chip, which is expected to power the next generation of iPhones, may not deliver the significant performance gains that were initially anticipated. The chip is being manufactured by TSMC, which is currently facing production difficulties with its 3 nm process due to issues with FinFET.
According to Twitter user Revegnus, TSMC’s 3 nm yield goal has dropped, which could limit the supply of the A17 Bionic if these problems are not resolved. As a result, the chip may not meet Apple’s desired power consumption and heat generation requirements, which could result in a lower performance uplift than initially anticipated.
This news is surprising, considering that an earlier report had suggested that TSMC was performing significantly better than Samsung, with an impressive yield rate of 80%. However, it is possible that the A17 Bionic that Apple wanted to produce on the 3 nm process was not successful in terms of power consumption and heat generation. As a result, the performance target may have dropped.
Despite these setbacks, Apple is known for its excellence in chip design, and it is expected that the A17 Bionic will still offer a satisfactory performance gain over its predecessor. However, if Apple has encountered an insurmountable obstacle with this chip, it is possible that the M3 SoC meant for future Macs may also face similar setbacks.
It is important to note that these are all rumors, and readers should take them with a grain of salt. TSMC is expected to commence mass production of its 3 nm chips shortly after the second half of 2023, at which point more information about the estimated performance numbers for the A17 Bionic and other chips will likely be available.
In addition to the A17 Bionic, there are also rumors surrounding Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which is expected to power a range of Android devices. However, these estimated performance numbers have been called into question, with some suggesting that they are in the “too good to be true” territory and require a significant node shift and a radically new CPU core design.
2024 is expected to see the return of Samsung’s nine-core Exynos 2400, which could give Qualcomm and MediaTek a run for their money. However, it remains to be seen whether these rumors will materialize into reality.
