“Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has recently begun to tape out the design for Apple’s A11 processor built on a 10nm FinFET process, according to industry sources,” Julian Ho and Jessie Shen report for DigiTimes..
“TSMC is expected to achieve certification on its 10nm process in the fourth quarter of 2016, and deliver product samples to the customer for validation in the first quarter of 2017, the sources continued,” Ho and Shen report. “TSMC could begin small-volume production for Apple’s A11 chips as early as the second quarter of 2017, the sources indicated.
Ho and Shen report, “The A11-series processor will power the iPhone models slated for launch in the second half of 2017.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: For Apple’s 2017 iPhones and iPad… and Macs?
Yes, MDN, the A11 might well be the pivotal point for Macs. Too bad that Microsoft dropped Windows RT for ARM processors. It might have offered the ability for Apple to continue offering native Windows compatibility to the subset f users who need it.
Would seem to be a glaring hole in Microsoft strategy. I’m sure they are also aware as ARM processors improve that these low cost / low power chips will begin to leak their way into PC Chassis.
Yes their windows everywhere strategy might backfire should that happen. If chromebooks start to gain more appeal outside of education then ‘PCs’ that more closely mimic them and with Arm silicone could certainly become rather more common, though not now using Windows I guess, so perhaps more of a PC replacement than true PC. As cloud computing become ever more common mind I dare say that won’t matter so much as time passes and buyers might not actually notice the difference.