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With the highly anticipated iPhone 15 on the horizon, TSMC recently announced that it will be starting mass production of 3 nm-based chip architecture for Apple’s A17 bionic chip. Reportedly, the newer 3 nm architecture offers vastly higher efficiency at similar performance levels when compared to last year’s 5 nm chip.
Apple had an interesting take in last year’s flagship segment. The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus arrived with Apple’s A15 chipset, while the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max featured the latest A16 chipset. It's possible that Apple wanted to differentiate their Pro line-up from the base models and opted not to add the latest chip to them. If industry insiders are to be believed, there is more to this than meets the eye.
An increase in efficiency of the A17 bionic chip on iPhone 15 may translate into better battery life
Apple’s GPU on their SoC is in danger of being caught on by competition in sheer performance numbers. There were rumors that Apple, in an attempt to provide a generational leap in GPU capabilities with features like ray tracing on the A16 bionic, ended up compromising on the total power draw of the SoC.
This rumor was covered by The Information as well, which claimed to have insider knowledge of what happened. Allegedly, to salvage the situation at the last minute, Apple had to resort to the A15 bionic GPU and offer an incremental improvement as opposed to a generational leap, and release it as the new A16 bionic. This would also explain Apple’s restructuring in the GPU team.
The announcement from TSMC regarding the 3 nm manufacturing process implies two things. The A17 bionic on the iPhone 15 is far more efficient than anything that Apple has ever developed, and they may have figured out the increased power draw problem that allegedly plagued the development of A16.
If this efficiency can translate into a better overall battery life, Apple might be able to overtake their competition by a substantial margin in terms of battery endurance.
Can ray tracing become a reality on 3 nm chips?
The 35% increase in the chip’s efficiency, combined with the year-on-year gains in performance, is perhaps all that Apple requires to finally feature ray tracing capabilities on its mobile platform. Ray tracing, in its current implementation, is exclusive to PCs and new-gen consoles. However, in November this year, Chinese manufacturer Oppo showcased an open ray tracing solution.
Moreover, a higher power draw dictates that a more efficient process is needed to provide more thermal room, thereby allowing more processing capability. This could also mean that Apple, like Google, is planning to move away from a laser-like focus on benchmarks and make smarter, more capable chips with improved efficiency instead.
Only time will tell if ray tracing can be achieved on a mobile platform, but what's certain is that the A17 bionic on iPhone 15 truly promises an upgrade that's well worth the money. Perhaps the A17 on the iPhone 15, with all of its efficiency gains, will pave the way for a far more powerful A18 down the line.
