Apple M2 Pro silicon, which will reportedly be built on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) 3nm process, will go into mass production later this year, as per an analyst. The news follows the launch of the M2 chipset, which Apple unveiled at WWDC 2022 in its latest MacBook Air (2022) and the 13-inch MacBook Pro (2022) laptops. It is noteworthy that Mark Gurman has already claimed that the Cupertino-based company is testing a 14-inch MacBook Pro and a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro chip. [1]

Figure 1. Apple M2 Pro Chip to Go into Mass Production with built on TSMC's 3nm Process

Figure 1 shows Citing analyst Jeff Pu of Haitong Intl Tech Research, 9to5mac reports that Apple supplier TSMC will start mass producing the “more powerful M2 Pro chip” later this year. The chipset is said to be built on the 3nm process. If true, the silicon will be more powerful than the Apple Silicon M2 chip, which is built on the same 5nm process as M1. [2]

The first products expected to be powered by the M2 Pro and M2 Max could be the updated versions of the redesigned MacBook Pro family in 2023. In case you did not know, the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro series are powered by the M1 Pro and M1 Max, with the M2 Pro and M2 Max expected to provide an increase in CPU and GPU cores. According to a previous report, the M2 Max could be equipped with up to a 12-core GPU and 38-core GPU, whereas the M1 Max can currently be maxed out with a 10-core CPU and 32-core configuration. [3]

The new Apple M2 chip is claimed to be 18% faster than M1 if CPU performance is considered. It has a 35% better GPU than the M1. Also, the M2 now supports up to 24GB of RAM, whereas, the M1 supports up to 16GB of RAM. It is worth noting that this difference comes even though the M1 and M2 share the same 5nm node. This gives us an idea of what the M2 Pro would be like, given that the fabrication process will be better i.e. 3nm. [4]

References:

1. https://m.thelocalreport.in/apple-m2-pro-chip-to-go-into-mass-production-this-year-may-be-built-on-tsmcs-3nm-process-report/
2. https://gadgets360.com/laptops/news/apple-m2-pro-chip-mass-production-later-this-year-report-3049610
3. https://wccftech.com/apple-m2-pro-and-m2-max-undergo-mass-production-tsmc-3nm-node-this-year/
4. https://www.bgr.in/news/apples-3nm-m2-pro-chipset-to-go-into-mass-production-later-this-year-1281124/

Cite this article:

Thanusri swetha J (2022), Apple M2 Pro Chip to Go into Mass Production with built on TSMC's 3nm Process, Anatechmaz, pp. 77