What 2nm allows
Along with the A20 Pro in the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone Duo, the M6 represents the first of Apple’s chips to use TSMC’s new 2nm manufacturing process, and is one of the world’s first mass-market 2nm chips.
New manufacturing process technologies can be difficult to understand, but in essence, this new 2nm process has smaller features (gates, transistors, resistors, and so on), meaning the same logic and RAM storage can fit in a smaller area. You can use this to make a smaller chip or simply put more chip “stuff” in the same area.
In the case of the M6, it allows Apple to increase the core count and add features, while also making the chip slightly smaller than the M5. The M6 is estimated to measure around 142mm.2compared to 157mm for the M52. In fact, except for the 119 mm.2 M1, the M6 is the smallest M series chip yet.
Semi-analysis
This new manufacturing process provides more than just the characteristics of smaller, denser chips. It also gives us a new type of transistor, GAAFET (gate integral field effect transistor), which replaces the old FinFET design. It surrounds the gate material on all four sides, instead of just three sides as in FinFET technology. It reduces leakage and makes chips more electrically stable, so they can run at lower power and higher clock speeds.
Big CPU changes
With the M5, Apple renamed its performance cores “super cores.” In the M5 Pro and Max, the company used both the new super cores and the new mid-range performance cores. Some chips, like the A18 Pro, included super and efficiency cores.
The M6 is the first Apple processor to use three Different CPU core designs: 2 super cores, 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores. It’s not the first company to do this sort of thing, as Intel’s Panther Lake generation includes a 4-8-4 design with what it calls performance cores, efficiency cores, and low-power efficiency cores.
