Apple may leave Intel in the dust as it prepares to launch 3nm Mac and iPhone chips

Despite Intel’s boasts that it would be locking down TSMC’s 3 nanometer (3nm) chip production, Apple recently revealed otherwise as the tech giant’s roadmap shows it leaping ahead of Intel with Mac and iPhone chips launching as soon as 2023.

Rumors have it that the 3nm could feature as many as four dies, with up to 40 CPU cores in total per chip. There will be three versions of the third-generation chip that will reportedly be codenamed ‘Ibiza,’ ‘Lobos,’ and ‘Palma.’

Apple is rumored to have begun working on the second and third generations of Mac chips, which are expected to succeed the M1 (the first Mac processor developed by Apple once it moved away from Intel’s), according to sources from The Information. These sources also claim that Apple’s processors will be able to outperform Intel’s own chips for consumer PCs.

Analysis: Intel is struggling in the market

Rumors about the TSMC 3nm manufacturing process being adopted by both Apple and Intel first emerged earlier this year, though the original report states they’ll be ready for mass production in 2022. Initially, sources from both Nikkei Asia and within Intel stated that the latter had bought out the larger volume of chips.

But now with rumors of Apple set to release its products — iPad, MacBook, and iPhones — with second and third-generation chips included, this could spell trouble for Intel.

Intel has already been having trouble keeping up production with Asian manufacturers such as TSMC and Samsung. The US company struggled with the 7nm production process — let alone 5nm or 3nm — and instead is forced to rely on chips built by those same competitors. It also confirmed the delay of the next-generation ‘Sapphire Rapids’ Xeon chips, which are based on 10nm technology.

Via 9to5Mac