MediaTek develops its first 3nm chip using TSMC process, coming in 2024

MediaTek and TSMC announced their collaboration on the 3nm chip today. The chipmaker revealed that it has taped out its flagship Dimensity SoC using TSMC's 3nm process technology. This marks the first time MediaTek has developed a chip leveraging the 3nm process.

According to details shared in the announcement, the new 3nm chipset is expected to enter volume production sometime in 2024. This means it will not be commercially available this year, though it shows promise for future MediaTek's Dimensity powered devices.

In a statement, Senior Vice President of Europe and Asia Sales at TSMC, Cliff Hou, said;

This collaboration between MediaTek and TSMC on MediaTek's Dimensity SoC means the power of industry's most advanced semiconductor process technology can be as accessible as the smartphone in your pocket.

Compared to TSMC's current 5nm process, the new 3nm technology delivers an 18% boost in performance at the same power levels. More significantly, it enables up to 32% power savings at the same speeds and a 60% increase in logic density.

While MediaTek may be the first to announce a 3nm chip, Apple is poised to be the first to bring it to market with its A17 Bionic chip. In February, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo estimated that the 3nm process will reduce power consumption by up to 35%.

The A17 Bionic is rumored to debut in the iPhone 15 Pro models on September 12, giving Apple around a one-year lead time advantage from MediaTek.

Meanwhile, the Dimensity 9300 is expected to debut in October and will likely not be built on the 3nm process. Early leaks suggest the Dimensity 9300 will use four Cortex-X4 and four Cortex-A720 cores with MediaTek's latest GPU and support up to 9.6Gbps LPDDR5T RAM.

Nonetheless, we will have to wait until 2024 to see the real-world results of 3nm technology in upcoming MediaTek SoCs.

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