TSMC has begun mass production of next-generation iPhone socs

Bloomberg news agency reports citing sources that Taiwanese chip maker TSMC has begun mass-producing next-generation socs that will come in iPhones to be released later this year.

The news agency says it is relying on sources that are familiar with information about the production process. This would include the new A12 soc, which is reportedly produced at 7nm. TSMC announced at the end of April that the mass production of 7nm chips has started and Apple’s upcoming A12 soc is almost certainly one of them. The sources declined to be named and Apple and TSMC did not respond to requests for comment.

Current Apple socs, such as the A11 Bionic from the iPhone X and the A10X that is included in iPad Pro models, for example, are made by TSMC on a 10nm process. The A10 for the iPhone 7 was manufactured on the 14-16nm processes of Samsung and TSMC.

On Wednesday, Samsung announced that it will be ready for the production of its 7LPP process for chips in the second half of this year, where LPP stands for low power plus. Production should actually start in the first half of 2019. The Korean company began mass production of the second-generation 10nm chips at the end of November last year. The Qualcomms Snapdragon 845 and the Exynos-9810-soc, among others, are made according to this process.