From ExtremeTech, November 3:
Apple Spent $1 Billion on the M3 Tape-Out, Says Analyst
Apple paid a king's ransom to be the first company with a 3nm processor.
When TSMC announced it had begun production of its next-generation 3nm process at the end of 2022, it was widely known it had only one big customer—Apple. The company reportedly bought almost all of TSMC's first run of 3nm wafers, so it could be the first tech giant in the world to offer this technology to its customers. Now that it's announced its 3nm products for iPhone and Mac, it's becoming clearer just how much Apple had to pay for the privilege of being first in line. According to one analyst, just the tape-out process alone cost the company $1 billion.
Though Apple officially unveiled its first 3nm chip in September with the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, this past week, it finally unveiled the M3 lineup of SoCs for the iMac and MacBook Pro. Though the two chip families share some design characteristics, the latter are much larger and more complex. For example, the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro is made with 19 billion transistors, whereas the M3 Max SoC has 92 billion transistors, so it's a whole different enchilada.
To create these chips, Apple had to loosen its purse strings considerably. One analyst estimated it coughed up $1 billion just for the final phase of the design process, called the tape-out. This is when the design is finalized, and the photomasks are created to be used in the manufacturing process....
....MUCH MORE
Oh to be smart enough to outcompete ASML in the lithography biz:
Today ASML Holding NV (ASML) has published its 2023 third-quarter results.
Q3 net sales of €6.7 billion, gross margin of 51.9%, net income of €1.9 billion
And have the premier manufacturer bragging about using your product:
TSMC says it will have advanced ASML chipmaking tool in 2024
With only one small cloud on the horizon:
Canon’s Advanced Chip Machines to Cost a Fraction of ASML’s Best
