Apple will design their own chips with the 5G modem starting in 2023, which will be made by Apple’s partner TSMC. This will allow the Cupertino engineers to no longer depend on Qualcomm chips, taking advantage of the technology acquired in 2019 by Intel.
Apple will produce its own 5G chips with TSMC
Nikei newspaper reports that Apple wants to adopt the technology a 4 nanometers of TSMC to produce the first ‘homemade’ 5G chip from Apple. The rumor, confirmed by four people close to the deal, also claims that Apple is working on custom components with fradio frequency and millimeter waves to complete the modem. Apple is also working on a power management component of the chip designed specifically for the modem, which should help conserve battery.
This Nikei report confirms what has already been hypothesized in recent days, with Apple wanting to launch iPhones with proprietary 5G chips in 2023. Furthermore, it seems that Qualcomm plans to ship only 20% of the iPhone 15s with its own chip. The chipmaker in fact thinks it will remain the Apple supplier only in markets where the frequencies Apple is working on are not supported. At least for 2023.
Finally, it appears that Apple and TSMC are currently carrying out preliminary tests using components with a 5-nanometer process, before moving on to more advanced 4nm technology when mass production begins. In fact, TSMC intends to use the 4-nanometer process already in the processors of the next iPhone series, while in 2023 it will start producing the ‘computational’ part of the 3-nanometer chip.
So Apple aims to produce more and more hardware components of iPhones with internal designs, to make smartphones more efficient. But also to tackle the chip crisis by lowering costs.