Yesterday Patently Apple posted a report titled "New Reports point to the Winners in Apple's Key Product Supply Chain for 2019," and the main winner was Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) gaining another exclusive contract for Apple's next-gen 7nm processors with EUV. The new technology promises to deliver vastly lower power consumption.

Today a new supply chain report expands on yesterday's news by noting that TSMC is expected to kick off volume production of chips built using an enhanced 7nm with EUV node at the end of March.

ASML, which provides extreme ultraviolet (EUV) litho equipment, is looking to ship a total of 30 EUV systems in 2019. Of the units to be shipped, 18 have already been reserved by TSMC, the sources indicated.

TSMC is also on track to move a newer 5nm node to risk production in the second quarter of 2019, the sources noted. The foundry will fully incorporate EUV in the 5nm node.

TSMC is investing US$25 Billion in 5nm processors likely to hit the market in 2020, in sync with Apple's 5G modem iPhones. It was reported in January that Apple is already engaged with TSMC's 5nm processor team. TSMC has promoted 5nm as the processor that will support major AR, AI, Deep Learning and provide users with days of power, something that all smartphone fans want.

TSMC CEO CC Wei disclosed previously the foundry expects to start taping out 5nm chip designs later in the first half of 2019 and move the node to volume production in the first half of 2020.

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