As I had predicted the new iPad has the first commercially available TSMC 10nm SoC. So those of you who still think the iPhone 8 will be delayed due to 10nm will be sadly disappointed. Not only is TSMC 10nm out, per Tech Insights tear down, it is a screamer! As will be the iPhone 8. They call it a full node scale from 16nm. I'm not going to upgrade my current iPad Pro which is also a beast but I will upgrade my iPhone 6s to an 8, absolutely!
The rumblings from the supply chain are indicating a big run of iPhone 8s this year so we should have a VERT strong 2H 2017!
10nm Rollout Marching Right Along!
We expected the Samsung 10 nm LPE process, TSMC 10 FF process, and Intel’s 10 nm process in production this year. Samsung’s came in first with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S8, containing either a Samsung or Qualcomm designed APU, built on Samsung’s 10 nm LPE process. The march continues with the Apple A10X, which is confirmed to be built on TSMC’s 10 FF process. The A10X die size comes in at 96.4 mm2 as compared to the previous generation, A9X at 143.9 mm2, which was built on TSMC’s 16 FF-Turbo technology. This is an impressive full node scale, when accounting for the extra CPU cores built into the A10X and extra IP blocks of the A10 vs. A9 family. We estimate a 45% die level scale (0.55x the area of running on the previous technology), based on our detailed floorplan analyses of the Apple A-series.
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The rumblings from the supply chain are indicating a big run of iPhone 8s this year so we should have a VERT strong 2H 2017!
10nm Rollout Marching Right Along!
We expected the Samsung 10 nm LPE process, TSMC 10 FF process, and Intel’s 10 nm process in production this year. Samsung’s came in first with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S8, containing either a Samsung or Qualcomm designed APU, built on Samsung’s 10 nm LPE process. The march continues with the Apple A10X, which is confirmed to be built on TSMC’s 10 FF process. The A10X die size comes in at 96.4 mm2 as compared to the previous generation, A9X at 143.9 mm2, which was built on TSMC’s 16 FF-Turbo technology. This is an impressive full node scale, when accounting for the extra CPU cores built into the A10X and extra IP blocks of the A10 vs. A9 family. We estimate a 45% die level scale (0.55x the area of running on the previous technology), based on our detailed floorplan analyses of the Apple A-series.
View attachment 20050
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