Wired
In recent years, TSMC and Apple have collaborated closely in cutting-edge chip manufacturing, which is one of the reasons why Apple has been able to gain an advantage in market competition. As TSMC’s largest customer, Apple not only accounts for a quarter of its revenue, but also actively invests in advanced process nodes to ensure competitive advantages. It will also explore packaging technologies such as 3D Fabric with supply chain partners.
According to Wccftech’s report, Apple is exploring the use of TSMC’s SoIC technology and is already conducting small-scale testing to prepare for future chip design. SoIC technology can bring some benefits to the chip, such as reducing power consumption. However, it is not yet clear which chips in Apple’s product line it intends to apply SoIC technology to.
In the past two years, AMD’s success in the Ryzen 5000/7000X3D series has been driven by the support of TSMC’s 3DFabric advanced packaging platform. Its 3D V-Cache technology is based on the advanced packaging of the Hybrid Bond concept. It was the first to use TSMC’s “SoIC+CoWoS” packaging services in high-end chips and gained considerable profits. In recent years, AMD has been bolder and more aggressive in its technology choices, and its successful introduction of advanced packaging technology into its product lines has also been noticed by other manufacturers.
SoIC is based on the CoWoS+WoW packaging method. Compared with general 2.5D solutions, it can not only reduce overall power consumption, but also have higher density and faster transmission rate, thus bringing higher memory bandwidth . Another benefit of SoIC is that it occupies a small area, which allows Apple to have enough freedom to mass-produce smaller chips and save space. In addition, SoIC technology reduces the price of integrated circuit boards and saves a lot of costs.
It is rumored that Apple will conduct small-scale trial production first and start large-scale production as soon as 2025, but it is more likely to choose 2026.
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