Apple's M3 chip may be delayed to fully promote the mass production of A17. Which series of devices are you looking forward to from Apple?

In November 2020, Apple officially launched the Apple Silicon Mac processor M1 specially designed for Mac in the new product launch event, and together with it, it brought a series of Mac products equipped with self-developed chips.

This has allowed Apple's Mac series devices to receive considerable external attention and good sales feedback.
In the following years, Apple has also carried out many iterations of M series self-developed chips, and successively brought M1 Pro, M1 Max, M1 Ultra, M2, M2 Pro, M2 Max and other chip products.

At present, Apple's latest Mac series iteration products have been updated to the M2 Pro/M2 Max version. At the same time, there are also news about Apple's subsequent self-developed chip iterations, and some information about the new M3 series chips has been exposed.

According to previous news, the new Mac equipped with the M3 chip may be launched as early as the end of this year, and the corresponding iPad device is also expected to arrive this year. Based on this, the M3 chip will be put into mass production and officially unveiled within this year.

However, the latest revelations mention a completely different claim, that TSMC cannot supply enough M3 chips to Apple due to insufficient production capacity of the 3nm process. Therefore, Apple has delayed the release of the M3 until next year, and this year Apple will not launch Mac or iPad products equipped with the M3 chip.

It is reported that the new generation of M3 chips will transition from the current 5nm standard to the 3nm production process. Compared with Apple's current 5nm chip, it will provide faster performance and higher power efficiency.

Of course, although the delivery of the M3 chip has been delayed, Apple will still bring a self-developed chip based on the 3nm process this year, that is, the new A17 chip that is expected to be installed in the iPhone 15 series.

As far as the overall product planning is concerned, Apple's A-series chips occupy a very important position in all product series. In the actual production and development process, it also maintains a certain priority.

Analyst Ming Kuo mentioned in a January news that the slowdown in processor upgrades is not conducive to end point product sales.
Therefore, in order to ensure that the most advanced 3nm process processor from 2023 to 2025 can be mass-produced smoothly with upgraded performance and significantly improved power consumption compared with the previous generation, Apple has devoted most of its IC design resources to developing processors.
Taken together, although Apple is conducting research and development of a variety of chip products, its main focus is still on ensuring the smooth mass production and listing of the A17 series chips.

It is said that compared with TSMC's existing N5 manufacturing process, the new N3 technology is expected to improve performance by 10% to 15% or reduce power consumption by 25% to 30% at the same power, and transistor density can be increased by up to 1.7 times.
But at the same time, the A17 chip expected to be used in the iPhone 15 series may be more focused on improving battery life than dealing with performance upgrades.

That is to say, although the new generation of A17 chip may use the upgraded 3nm technology, users who are looking forward to a greater performance upgrade may need to continue to wait for a longer iteration of Apple's self-developed chip.
On the whole, Apple has a number of chip products that are in the process of research and development, and are expected to appear one after another in the future. And the new iPhone, Mac, and iPad products equipped with these chips are also ready to go.
According to the current revelations, which series of device updates are you looking forward to from Apple?