en.Wedoany.com Reported - On July 12, TSMC's 2nm process in Taiwan, China has entered mass production. Google in the US plans to release its new-generation Pixel 11 series phones on August 12, which are expected to be equipped with the Tensor G6 processor manufactured using TSMC's 2nm process. If the relevant chip configuration is ultimately implemented, the Pixel 11 could become one of the first, or even the first, 2nm smartphones to enter the consumer market, approximately one month ahead of the expected September release of Apple's iPhone 18 Pro series in the US. Google in the US has confirmed the release date for the new-generation Pixel hardware but has not yet officially announced the manufacturing process and complete specifications of the Tensor G6.

TSMC's N2 process in Taiwan, China began volume production as planned in the fourth quarter of 2025, marking the company's first use of gate-all-around nanosheet transistors in a mass-produced logic process. The previous 3nm process continued to use fin field-effect transistors, where the gate primarily controls the channel from three directions; N2 uses multiple layers of horizontal nanosheets as conductive channels, allowing the gate to surround the channel from all sides, thereby enhancing current control. As transistor dimensions continue to shrink, this structure can reduce leakage current in the off state and mitigate the impact of short-channel effects on performance stability.

Compared to the N3E process, N2 can improve operational performance by approximately 10% to 15% under the same power consumption; while maintaining the same speed, power consumption can be reduced by about 25% to 30%. For mixed chips containing logic circuits, static random-access memory, and analog circuits, transistor density can increase by about 15%, while designs primarily focused on logic circuits can achieve an increase of up to about 20%. These figures represent the design targets of the process platform; the actual performance improvement of mobile phone chips will also be affected by the central processing unit architecture, graphics core scale, cache configuration, operating frequency, and thermal limitations, and cannot be directly equated to the overall performance improvement of the device.

The Tensor G6 is expected to be a system-on-chip independently defined by Google in the US. This chip needs to integrate the central processing unit, graphics processing unit, artificial intelligence computing unit, image signal processor, security module, and multi-level cache within a limited area, and work in coordination with the mobile communication modem and memory. By adopting the 2nm process, Google in the US can arrange more computing units within a similar chip area, or choose to maintain the existing scale and reduce heat generation and power consumption by lowering the operating voltage; the final solution depends on the specific configuration of the Pixel 11 for local artificial intelligence, image processing, battery life, and sustained performance.

N2 also adjusts the power delivery structure inside the chip, adopting high-performance metal-insulator-metal capacitors in the power distribution network. The capacitance density per unit area of this capacitor structure exceeds twice that of the previous generation, while sheet resistance and via resistance are reduced by about 50%, enabling stable power supply during rapid load changes of the processor. When a phone performs tasks such as image compositing, AI generation, or high-load gaming, some computing modules inside the chip will activate intensively within a very short time, causing a surge in instantaneous current demand; if the power distribution network cannot respond in time, voltage drops, frequency limitations, or calculation errors may occur. Increasing on-chip capacitance density can shorten the response distance between the power supply and computing units.

Google in the US has scheduled its 2026 hardware launch event for August 12, expected to introduce the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and a foldable model. The first three products may go on sale around August 20, while the foldable version's release date might be slightly later. Current information indicates that the entire Pixel 11 series will use the Tensor G6, but it is not yet confirmed whether all models will use the exact same chip version, nor can it be ruled out that different models may differentiate in terms of graphics core count, operating frequency, or AI unit configuration.

If the Pixel 11 indeed debuts with a 2nm processor in August, its advantage lies in the product release timing, not the mass production timeline of TSMC's 2nm process. TSMC in Taiwan, China had already initiated N2 mass production in the fourth quarter of 2025. After chip wafer fabrication is completed, it still requires dicing, packaging, testing, motherboard assembly, and system debugging. Smartphones typically need to prepare a certain quantity of finished chips in advance before official release, so the design finalization, mask making, and trial production verification of the Tensor G6 should have been completed at an earlier stage.

Apple in the US is expected to launch the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in September 2026, which may feature the A20 Pro processor also manufactured using TSMC's N2 process. Currently, Apple in the US has not yet announced the release date or process information, and the base iPhone 18 may be delayed until 2027. Therefore, "Google in the US is one month ahead of Apple in the US" mainly corresponds to the expected release windows of the Pixel 11 and iPhone 18 Pro series, not the officially confirmed results of a mass production race between the two companies.

What can be confirmed at this stage is that TSMC's N2 in Taiwan, China has entered mass production, Google in the US has determined to release the next-generation Pixel hardware on August 12; whether the Tensor G6 adopts the 2nm process and whether the Pixel 11 becomes the first 2nm phone still await confirmation from official product specifications. The transistor count, chip area, core architecture, maximum frequency, packaging method, and actual power consumption of the Tensor G6 have not been disclosed, and the final technical performance cannot be judged solely based on the "2nm" node name.