iPhone 17 Pro to be the first with a chipset built on TSMC's 2nm process
Next year"s iPhone 17 Pro will be the first iPhone to sport a chipset built on TSMC"s 2nm process, according to a new report today. TSMC announced it started working on a 2nm process back in 2022, and even back then rumor had it the iPhone 17 Pro would be the first device to get a chipset using that process.
Now, this is confirmed - as much as anything can really be "confirmed" by a rumor. Small scale production on the 2nm process is expected to debut at TSMC later this year, with mass manufacturing starting in 2025, right in time for the iPhone 17 Pro"s release in the fall of next year.
Earlier this year, it was claimed that Apple had contracted the entirety of TSMC"s 2nm process, at least initially. Aside from the iPhone 17 Pro, 2nm chips are also apparently intended to be used in future Apple Silicon Macs.
The next step after 2nm will be an enhanced version of the 2nm process, expected towards the end of 2026, and then the jump will be made to 1.4nm - that is, of course, if this report is accurate.
The iPhone 16 series and iOS 18 are expected to both come later this year with a heavy focus on AI, but it looks like all of that AI processing, the part that"s on-device, will have to make do without 2nm chips this year.
