TSMC 3nm Node Is Better Than Expected, Alleges Report: Apple Priority Customer While Intel Delays Orders For Arrow Lake GPU

Intel Core i9-14900K & Core i7-14700K Raptor Lake Refresh CPU Benchmarks Leak Out 1

A report from DigiTimes suggests that TSMC's 3nm node performance is better than expected but it looks like Intel is delaying orders till late 2024.

Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, initiated the mass production of its N3 or 3nm process node back in Q4 of 2022. Now based on initial reports, the performance of the new node is said to be exceeding expectations. This will allow TSMC to retain its dominant position in process node technology.

Intel will delay placing orders for 3nm chips with TSMC until the fourth quarter of 2024, according to sources at PC makers.

via DigiTimes

Apple is said to be one of the prime customers of TSMC's 3nm process node and while the cost is expected to be relatively higher than the existing 5nm process node, it won't affect Apple much as they will be utilizing it for their premium products launching next year. Meanwhile, the cost might be an issue for PC customers who are not only affected by the rising cost of top-tier nodes but also by a declining market where the demand has dropped massively.

Intel is expected to utilize an external foundry for its 15th Gen Arrow Lake iGPU. The N3 process node is said to be the candidate for the GPU tile but it looks like the company is going to delay the orders until Q4 of 2024. This would mean that Arrow Lake won't be ready until the 2H of 2025 in decent (shippable) quantities.

The follow-up to Meteor Lake is Arrow Lake and the 15th Gen lineup brings with it a lot of changes. While it would be socket compatible with whatever Meteor Lake lands on, the Redwood Cove cores and Crestmont cores will be upgraded to the brand-new Lion Cove and Skymont cores. These are expected to bring a major advantage with the uplifted core counts which are expected to be 40/48 on the new SKUs (8 P-Cores + 32 E-Cores).

Surprisingly, Intel would skip its 'Intel 4' node and jump directly to 20A for the Arrow Lake CPUs. One thing that's true for both Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake chips is that they will retain their N3 (TSMC) process node for additional core IPs, presumably the Arc GPU cores. The Intel 20A node delivers a 15% improvement in performance per watt, utilizing next-gen RibbonFET & PowerVia tech, and is scheduled to have the first IP test wafers running in fabs by the second half of 2022.