As Apple reportedly transitions to becoming TSMC’s first customer to get the initial batch of 2nm wafers, the company is also expected to use the Taiwanese manufacturer’s 3DFabric chips for its custom silicon. According to the latest information, Apple is impressed with what its supply chain partner is working on, though the technology giant’s first product to adopt this technology is still a few years away.
The first MacBook with TSMC’s 3DFabric technology may not arrive until 2025 at the earliest
A Taiwanese financial outlet called MoneyDJ states that TSMC’s 3DFabric technology will be adopted by both AMD and Apple thanks to the number of benefits it brings to the table. The published information spotted by IT Home also mentions that this 3DFabric chip manufacturing approach will include CoWoS (Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate) and SoIC (Small Outline Integrated Circuit) technologies. The biggest advantage that 3DFabric presents to Apple is having additional freedom to design its future custom chipsets.
Instead of having a larger monolithic die, 3DFabric allows companies to design their chips as a system of interconnected parts. As demand for high-performance workloads increases, as is the case when it comes to pushing the boundaries of computing on portable computers, 3D chip-stacking clients are expected to increase. However, Apple is only said to be engaged in trial production now, meaning that the company’s first family of custom SoCs flaunting a blend of CoWoS and SoIC technologies is not expected for a few years.
In fact, the report itself states that the first MacBook with a 3DFabric chip may not arrive until 2025, and that might be an optimistic timeline estimation because, in the past, we have seen Apple delay its chip launches due to numerous setbacks. For now, the California-based giant is said to prepare its M3, which will be found in many MacBook models. Next year, we shall see the M3 Pro and M3 Max arrive, followed by the M3 Ultra. Perhaps after that, we will provide an update on 3DFabric chip development.
