www.extremetech.com, Aug. 12, 2021 –
TSMC isn't expected to ship 3nm silicon in volume for another year, but rumors of which partner will be "first" to the node are already flying, along with rumors that TSMC's 3nm capacity has already been booked. It's been a banner year for TSMC, which recently replaced Tencent as the largest technology company in Asia.
Right now, the big debate is over which company will tape the new node first – Intel or Apple? Historically, the smart money has been on Apple, and rumors from DigiTimes have indicated that TSMC will support Apple with 3nm next year. Other reports, however, claim Intel will ship GPUs and server cores on 3nm. This would seem to be a reference to solutions like Ponte Vecchio, but that chip has been reported as a 5nm part.