According to a rumor clarified by a reliable source, the A17 chip designed for the iPhone 16 and ‌iPhone 16‌ Plus will be produced using a fundamentally different manufacturing process than the A17 Pro in the iPhone 15 Pro in order to reduce costs.

A Weibo user claiming to be an integrated circuit expert with 25 years of experience working on Intel’s Pentium processors was the first to spread the rumor in June. Now the same source has also clarified Apple’s apparent plan for a standard iPhone chip in 2024.

The A17 Pro chip for the ‌iPhone 15 Pro‌ is manufactured using TSMC’s N3B process, but Apple is reportedly planning to switch to the cheaper N3E process for next year’s standard A17 chip designed for the ‌iPhone 16‌ and ‌iPhone 16‌ Plus. This will be the first chip Apple has developed specifically for standard iPhone models. In previous years, Apple gave the entire “iPhone” lineup the same chip before leaving a one-year gap between the standard model and Pro models, starting with the iPhone 14 in 2022.

The A15 Bionic chip in the ‌iPhone 14‌ and ‌‌‌‌‌iPhone 14‌‌ is a higher block content variant with an additional GPU core than the A15 used in the ‌iPhone 13‌ and ‌‌‌iPhone 13‌‌, so it appears to be the same chip across generations. There are no differences. ard but actually this means keeping the same name on a fundamentally different chip.

N3B is the original 3nm node that TSMC built in partnership with Apple. N3E, on the other hand, is a simpler and cheaper node that most other TSMC customers will use. N3E has fewer EUV layers and lower transistor density than N3B, resulting in lower efficiency. The N3B was also ready for mass production longer than the N3E, but its efficiency was much lower. N3B was originally designed as a trial node and is incompatible with TSMC’s successor processes, including N3P, N3X, and N3S; This means Apple will have to redesign its future chips to take advantage of TSMC’s innovations.

Apple was initially thought to have planned to use the N3B for the A16 Bionic chip but had to fall back on the N4 as it wasn’t ready in time. Apple is likely to use the N3B CPU and GPU core design originally developed for the A16 Bionic in the A17 Pro, before switching to the original A17 design with the N3E in late 2024. This architecture is likely to be repeated in TSMC’s successor. Nodes for chips such as “A18” and “A19”.

A Weibo user was the first to say that standard ‌iPhone 14‌ models will retain the A15 Bionic chip, while the A16 will be exclusive to ‌iPhone 14‌ Pro models; this rumor was later widely confirmed to be true. Earlier this month, Haitong International Securities analyst Jeff Pu confirmed rumors of a 2024 A17 chip made with N3E, adding that the ‌iPhone 16‌ and ‌iPhone 16‌ Plus will also have 8GB of storage, down from 6GB in the iPhone 15 and ‌iPhone 15‌ Plus .