TSMC will begin making Apple's A14 chips for iPhone 12 in April according to reliably unreliable source

News
By Oliver Haslam
published

TSMC HQ
TSMC HQ (Image credit: TSMC)

What you need to know

  • TSMC will reportedly start producing A14 chips next month.
  • The chip will be on the 5nm process.
  • That should make it cooler and more power-efficient.

Apple's processor manufacturing partner, TSMC, will reportedly begin mass production of the Apple A14 chip in April, according to DigiTimes. This is the chip that will power iPhone 12 that will likely go on sale in September, coronavirus permitting.

TSMC has been the partner Apple turns to for A-series processors for years and the move to 5nm will be a first for Apple. It should, in theory, allow the chips to run cooler while using less power. The knock-on effect of that is likely that the A14 can be clocked at a higher frequency than the previous A13 – a chip that is already faster than a ton of Apple notebooks.

Apple is expected to announce iPhone 12 in September, although there has been some suggestion that we might have to wait until October. This will all depend on coronavirus and the impact it continues to have on Apple's supply chain.

It is, however, worth noting that DigiTimes has a spotty past with these kinds of reports. As ever, we'd suggest taking this with a pinch of salt. Even though TSMC usually starts producing Apple's new chips around this time of year.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.