A report that Apple has apparently secured 80% of TSMCs 5nm production throughout 2021 emerges

[Master Disaster]

In what could be more bad news for both businesses and customers, a report has come out of Taiwan claims that Apple has snatched up 80% of TSMC's 5nm wafer output for 2021 leaving the likes of Qualcomm, Broadcom & AMD to fight over the remaining 20%.

Quote

It’s no secret that TSMC has been Apple’s chief supplier of chips for various products. TSMC continues to improve its chip developing technologies through long-term and increasing investments. Of course, when you have a lucrative client like Apple that continues to push the boundaries of silicon development, you’ll do whatever you can to retain that customer. The iPhone giant has also recognized TSMC as a valuable business partner, which is why for 2021, a fresh report states that it has occupied 80 percent of all 5nm production from the manufacturer.

 

A report from Taiwanese sources and published by CnBeta talks about Apple having secured an unrivaled production capacity from TSMC. Details mention that the third phase of TSMC’s plant will commence mass production from the first quarter of 2021. With production lines in place, the company should process around 9,000 wafers every month. Apart from Apple, companies like Qualcomm, MediaTek, Broadcom, and others have secured 5nm production from TSMC.

Its unclear exactly which of TSMC's various 5nm nodes the new Apple silicon will be using but they are expected to be launching at least 2 new products in 2021 running on M1 and they have told shareholders they intend to be full transitioned to ARM by 2022 so it makes sense they are going to want lots of M1 wafers.

Quote

Several Apple products expected to release in 2021 will likely feature chips made on TSMC’s 5nm node. Keep in mind that TSMC has several node variants for different clients, starting with 5nm, then 5nm+, and lastly, enhanced 5nm. It’s not confirmed which manufacturing process these chips will use, but we can run you through the custom silicon that we expect to get unveiled next year. Firstly, we have the new iPad Pro series, and according to rumors, the new family of tablets will use A14Z Bionic.

 

These should also be the first from Apple to sport a mini-LED screen, and according to previous reports, the new iPad Pro models are expected in H1, 2021. Next up, we have the newly designed iMac, which is said to feature Apple’s A14T chip, and it could be the technology giant’s first machine to feature a dedicated GPU. Last but certainly not least, we have the iPhone 13 lineup, which is expected in September. The new models will likely be fueled by the A15 Bionic made on TSMC’s improved N5P, a 5nm node with improved performance and power efficiency.

English Source - https://wccftech.com/apple-secured-80-tsmc-5nm-production-capacity-2021/

Taiwanese Source - https://www.cnbeta.com/articles/tech/1068385.htm

 

Apple is going hard on the M1s, my worry is this will mean shortages for AMD which will hurt the PC market even more.

 

80% seems disproportionately large though.

[wall03]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

80% seems disproportionately large though.

Yeah. We might have to deal with another AMD shortage next year

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, wall03 said:

Yeah. We might have to deal with another AMD shortage next year

The only people that benefits is the scalpers.

[jagdtigger]

2 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

80% seems disproportionately large though.

Guess someone at TSMC got some really fat envelope...... Its really sad, i wanted to upgrade next year but i guess ill have to wait one more year .

[wall03]

Guess I'll upgrade to Ryzen 7000 when I upgrade my computer

[CommanderAlex]

Just now, wall03 said:

Guess I'll upgrade to Ryzen 7000 when I upgrade my computer

And I have to also agree with that also (can't do two reactions at the same time).

[Master Disaster]

If TSMC is going to be churning out basically nothing but M1s then what are the chances of Apple just buying the fab outright? Surely its cheaper in the long run to buy the fab than it is to keep paying huge sums each quarter to reserve so much fab space?

[Tristerin]

Im in process of repurposing Ryzen Rig 2, with intent to build myself a new rig.  I already plan on going back to an even older setup until I finish the new build...but man please dont have me on something old for a long time market! lol

[A1200]

This is why Intel needs to start being driven by engineers and not accountants. They have an open goal here if they can shrink their process node - they have thousands of square feet of foundries all over the world - they invented the CPU FFS. Its like England inventing modern day soccer and then letting the world beat them on the international stage!

[Fasterthannothing]

80%! C'mon that just insane their isn't any need to Apple to screw over the rest of the computer industry for this. Their are already enough shortages as is. I understand TSMC doesn't care because it's still cash in their pocket but I'm sick of this bull crap stock levels. Apple isn't the only company who needs to make chips. If TSMC is the only one who can do these fabs on a large scale (I know samsung exist just not at this level)then I think it's time to look into breaking up the monopoly.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, Tedny said:

Zen4 in 2022, I guess, and Nvidia 4000 and AMD 7000, too 

Didn't we hear last week that Nvidia are sticking with Samsung? I guess Jen-Shun is laughing his ass off right now knowing he took most of Samsungs capacity while it was still cheap.

[StDragon]

5 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

If TSMC is going to be churning out basically nothing but M1s then what are the chances of Apple just buying the fab outright? Surely its cheaper in the long run to buy the fab than it is to keep paying huge sums each quarter to reserve so much fab space?

They could but wont

 

This will be a big shock to industry. We're talking about saturation of latest gen capacity. Their next plant are reported to be 12 and 20 BILLION in costs. For each plant!!

I doubt there will be that much of a market for Apple products to warrant that many M1 chips. 

[Fasterthannothing]

5 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Didn't we hear last week that Nvidia are sticking with Samsung? I guess Jen-Shun is laughing his ass off right now knowing he took most of Samsungs capacity while it was still cheap.

Yep AMD might have just knocked themselves right out of existence with their lack of stock. Looks like they missed the fab allocation bus and this could put them way behind. Who cares how good the product is if you can't sell any of it.

[TetraSky]

Could that just be because AMD and the others don't have anything on 5nm yet, thus Apple has "80% of the production... of 5nm" and not "80% of the total possible production across all process nodes" ?

The way I read this, it shouldn't affect AMD and Co. at all.

Am I wrong to think that?

[Master Disaster]

Just now, TetraSky said:

Could that just be because AMD and the others don't have anything on 5nm yet, thus Apple has "80% of the production... of 5nm" and not "80% of the total possible production across all process nodes" ?

The way I read this, it shouldn't affect AMD and Co. at all.

I thought AMD has 5nm roadmapped for 2021 which would mean they are at least taping out by now. Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression fab space is allocated months (if not years) in advance of when its actually needed to allow for expansion and retooling.

[TetraSky]

5 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I thought AMD has 5nm roadmapped for 2021 which would mean they are at least taping out by now. Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression fab space is allocated months (if not years) in advance of when its actually needed to allow for expansion and retooling.

Ah right, Zen 4... It certainly is slatted for end of 2021 I think, but could be 2022 for all we know at this point.

But from what I'm reading 5nm has a greater usable yield than 7nm, so it might just be enough.

Honestly, Apple securing 80% of the production is simply strange considering their sales compared to Windows PC and Android phones makers(Apple market share is much lower in other parts of the world than the US)... Unless they did that to stifle their competition at the source.

[Coolmaster]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

I thought AMD has 5nm roadmapped for 2021 which would mean they are at least taping out by now. Correct me if I'm wrong but I was under the impression fab space is allocated months (if not years) in advance of when its actually needed to allow for expansion and retooling.

AMD doesn't have to use TSMC, they could use a different fab.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, Coolmaster said:

AMD doesn't have to use TSMC, they could use a different fab.

Again I might be wrong but only TSMC & Samsung have a 5nm node ATM, correct?

 

Nvidia took all of Samsung's space for Ampere and now Apple took all of TSMC's space.

 

 

[Coolmaster]

14 minutes ago, Shorty88jr said:

80%! C'mon that just insane their isn't any need to Apple to screw over the rest of the computer industry for this. Their are already enough shortages as is. I understand TSMC doesn't care because it's still cash in their pocket but I'm sick of this bull crap stock levels. Apple isn't the only company who needs to make chips. If TSMC is the only one who can do these fabs on a large scale (I know samsung exist just not at this level)then I think it's time to look into breaking up the monopoly.

Why does Apple care about the rest of the industry's stock availability? If they need to make that many M1s then they need that capacity just as much as anyone else. And most products that are having supply issues aren't using 5nm. There are more than just TSMC and Samsung as foundries. There's UMC, Global Foundries, Texas Instruments, and tons more.

[thechinchinsong]

1 minute ago, Coolmaster said:

AMD doesn't have to use TSMC, they could use a different fab.

It's not completely trivial to switch fabs though. AMD's spent the past couple years optimizing and designing architectures with TSMC's roadmap and nodes in mind I think, so switching to Samsung or god forbid somehow back to Global Foundries as their main fab would be pretty disastrous imo. As much credit as AMD engineers get for architecture design, at least some of the improvement from AMD processors has been due to the great engineering they are able to utilize through TSMC's nodes. If they had to resort to another fab's process node, they might have had to scale back some of the improvements gen on gen or make adjustments to their current designs to fit a different node.

[n0stalghia]

30 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

The only people that benefits is the scalpers.

And Apple customers - they won't have to deal with shortages. I guess Apple doesn't want customers to notice current supply problems. Would not be exactly magical if someone wants to buy a device and it's out of stock.

[RejZoR]

5 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

I hope not because I plan on upgrading to a 5900x and Sapphire or PowerColor 6900 XT for rendering. 

Good luck with that. Ryzen 5000 is entirely unobtainable. So is Radeon RX 6000. I was lucky enough to snatch 5800X locally in some computer shop in my own country where usual shops from Germany where I generally buy are all out of stock. Did pay some more for it at 560€ which is relatively normal considering the times we're in and bolting 22% VAT on top of MSRP price. No such luck with graphic cards which all go for up to 500€ more than their MSRP which is just moronic. 100€ I'd still go with, but not this.

[DrMacintosh]

Isn't this business as usual? Mobile partners have always taken up the majority of this business. 

[DildorTheDecent]

6 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Isn't this business as usual? Mobile partners have always taken up the majority of this business. 

APPLE BAD.

[Tan3l6]

Apple is hogging chips.

Pigs are hogging apples.

 

Wonderful nature.