Apple's A11 chip for iPhone 8 to begin production in April

The iPhone 8 and 7s variants may not appear on shelves until later this year, but production of the parts that goes into the phones has already begun. Sources say that TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is expected to begin mass production of the Apple A11 SoC in April, and this will be the chipset found in this year’s iPhones.

Details surrounding the A11 chip are still unknown, though signs point to Apple using a 10 nanometer process, similar to what Samsung and Qualcomm have created with the Exynos 8895 and Snapdragon 835 processors, respectively. Last generation iPhones use the Apple A10 Fusion, which was exclusively manufactured by TSMC at 16 nm, and many expect that they will also be the sole producer of the A11 chip as well.

The reduction to 10nm indicates that the new chip will see huge improvements in efficiency and performance due to the smaller space between transistors, which allows for higher clock speeds. Considering that the A10 Fusion already achieved exceptional single-core performance, the A11 could certainly prove a worthy competitor to the chipsets in other high-end smartphones.

TSMC is scheduled to produce 50 million of the new chips before the end of July and plans to create 100 million chips this year.

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