In his recent Power On newsletter, Gurman cited sources revealing that an October event will follow Apple’s iPhone 15 series announcement scheduled for September. Considering the present state of Apple’s product lineup, Gurman suggests that the event will spotlight new Macs outfitted with the M3 chip.
Since the launch of new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models in January and the unveiling of 15-inch MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro models in June, Gurman posits that the upcoming iMac, 13-inch MacBook Air, and 13-inch MacBook Pro are likely to be the first devices to benefit from the new M3 chip.
Gurman further anticipates the launch of new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models featuring M3 Pro and M3 Max chips in early 2024, as he stated in a previous report.
The M3 chip, expected to be produced using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)’s 3nm (nanometer) process, promises significant performance and power efficiency enhancements compared to the 5nm-based M2 chip found in Apple’s latest Mac models. TSMC began mass production of its 3nm chips at the end of December.
3nm processor chip
The 3nm processor chip represents a significant leap forward in the semiconductor industry. This advanced technology, produced by TSMC, is slated to bring unprecedented efficiency and performance improvements to future computing devices. TSMC’s 3nm process, also known as N3, leverages the FinFET transistor architecture to achieve superior power efficiency and enhanced processing speeds, compared to its 5nm predecessor.
TSMC’s 3nm chip technology is expected to provide a 10-15% increase in speed at iso-power or a 25-30% reduction in power at iso-speed compared to its previous 5nm process. Furthermore, the N3 technology offers an up to 70% logic density gain.
These increases are significant and show the potential to dramatically improve performance in high-end computing, networking, mobile devices, and emerging artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
