After the 7 nm engraving process for the A13 Bionic processors present in the iPhone 12 series, then 5 nm for the iPhone 13, Apple considered 3 nanometer technology from the end of 2021. In reality, this process was even envisaged in 2020 for today's iPhone 14s, but it will ultimately be next year's iPhone 15s that should benefit from it.
3 nm engraving, on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max
The indiscretion revealed at the end of last year is confirmed again, the Taiwanese processor manufacturer TSMC having recently announced the production of chips with the 3 nanometer engraving process. According to sources close to the subject, Apple will be the main customer for these components in 2023, which will arrive at the competition in 2024. In fact, it will most certainly be the iPhone 15s for the start of the 2023 school year which will benefit from this technology. More specifically, it is the Pro and Pro Max models that will be affected, Apple having decided to differentiate the iPhone Pro and non-Pro with separate processors from the iPhone 14.
3 nm engraving, the race for billions of transistors
For reference, the 7 nm process allows a density of 90 million transistors per square millimeter, i.e. a total of 8.5 billion transistors on the iPhone 12. The 5 nm process allows a density of 134 million transistors per square millimeter, i.e. a total of 11.8 billion transistors for the A14 Bionic of the iPhone 13. Without further details, we can therefore imagine what the 3 nm process will give on the iPhone 15, i.e. around 15 billion transistors. Source: Digitimes