While Apple is expected to announce its 5G capable iPhones later this year, the Cupertino company is now rumored to feature the X60 Snapdragon modem chips from Qualcomm. The report from DigiTimes mentions that TSMC, the company responsible for manufacturing the Apple A14 CPU for the new iPhones, will be manufacturing the Qualcomm X60 chips.
TSMC to start chip production for next-gen iPhones in June
TSMC will start manufacturing Apple’s custom-designed A14 SoCs and Qualcomm’s X60 5G modem chips, with both set to power the upcoming iPhones slated for launch later in 2020, using 5nm process technology in June, according to industry sources.
The production of the new chips by TSMC is expected to start in June. The new Qualcomm X60 chip is based on the 5nm fabrication process and is said to offer better power efficiency as compared to the X55 modem chip from Qualcomm. The X60 is the world’s first 5G modem based on the 5nm process node. According to popular analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple planned to use the X55 Snapdragon X55 chips. The X60 modems will be able to combine data from mmWave and sub-6 GHz bands to form a low-latency and high-speed network coverage.
Whether this rumor has to trusted or not remains to be seen. But DigiTimes is known to share accurate information regarding future releases of upcoming Apple products and is said to have trusted sources that deal directly with the Apple supply chain. The same goes for Ming-Chi Kuo who has predicted correct information regarding future Apple products.
Apple is expected to announce its next-generation Apple iPhone 12 in September. However, it is quite possible that the announcement might get delayed due to the ongoing pandemic. It should also be noted that the manufacturing 5nm chips could delay the launch process as other brands such as AMD, NVIDIA, Qualcomm, MediaTek, and more could also be planning for new products based on the 5nm process.