Samsung might finally be kicked the curb when it comes to who gets the lion’s share of Apple’s chipmaking business. According to analysts Olivia and Rick Hsu from Daiwa Securities, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is likely to snap up 70 percent of all Apple’s A9 and A9X orders, leaving rival chipmaker Samsung out in the (relative) cold.
The reason for this is reportedly the “superior yield” and “manufacturing excellence in mass-production” exhibited by TSMC, which will get it a large percentage of the A9 orders, and all of the A9x orders for the next generation iPad.
If the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are anything to go by, the sales for the iPhone 6s are likely to be pretty massive, so opting for the company that shows an ability to churn out plenty of chips at high quality without problem makes a lot of sense. Reportedly, the A9 processor will be built using a TSMC technology called “Integrated fan-out wafer-level packaging” or InFO-WLP.
While TSMC and Samsung have long competed for Apple’s chip business, this year’s competition seems to have been among the fiercest. Recently, TSMC sued an ex-employee who allegedly leaked R&D secrets to Samsung; thereby allowing it to both catch up in the chip fabrication business.
“We brought the lawsuit because TSMC Chairman Morris Chang and senior management were convinced we needed to send a message to Samsung, employees and other competitors,” the former chief counsel for TSMC told EE Times.
Although the iPhone 6s is virtually guaranteed to be a success regardless of who ultimately wins the chip battle, many Apple fans would doubtless like to see the company ditch Samsung altogether. That doesn’t appear to be happening completely, but if today’s news is accurate, we could be one step closer to a Samsung-free supply chain.
Via: GforGames
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
4 responses to “Apple may give majority of its A9 chip business to TSMC instead of Samsung”
Music to my ears.
This story is probably just a rumor but if it isn’t I honestly hope TSMC is capable of doing as good a job or better than Samsung. I dread hearing somewhere down the line how TSMC ran into some problem of bad ingots or wafers. Apple would still be wise to have some backup, just in case. I just get nervous when I hear about Apple switching component suppliers after the GTAT fiasco with sapphire displays. That really gave me the chills.
Clearly the fanboys are getting younger and younger. This is a 4th grade fantasy. Xman has it right: the opposite is actually happening.
This report is coming from chinese/taiwanese reporters. The report could now be true because samsung needs all or more of its foundries for the exynos in the galaxy s6. TSMC maybe only getting it now because samsung is saying no to apple