Apple supplier expects to start volume production of 3nm chips as soon as 2022

This year, TSMC debuted chips made using its 5nm process node. The first smartphones released with a 5nm chip were the Apple iPhone 12 series which features the A14 Bionic chipset. Apple also has this chip powering the iPad Air (2020). The 5nm A14 Bionic has a transistor density of 134 million transistors per square mm compared to 89.97 million transistors per square mm on the 7nm A13 Bionic. The transistor count for the A14 Bionic is 11.8 billion compared to 8.5 billion transistors for the A13 Bionic. Those additional transistors found in the A14 Bionic make it a more powerful performer and more energy efficient than the A13 Bionic.