Apple Attempts To Purchase Exclusive Access To TSMC’s Smartphone Chips [Report]

Exclusivity to TSMC’s production would make things very difficult for Apple’s competitors.

In an effort to better meet the demand of its mobile devices — and make things very difficult for its competitors — Apple has reportedly been bidding to secure exclusive access to TSMC’s (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) custom smartphone chips. Qualcomm has also been bidding up against the Cupertino company, and both parties are believed to have submitted bids in excess of $1 billion.

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Samsung Forced To Release New Chips Early After Apple Rumor Causes Stock Plummet

These chips will end up in Apple devices, despite what DigiTimes reports.

Samsung has reportedly launched its next generation of 20-nanometer mobile memory chips early in a bid to repair the damage caused by a throwaway rumor from DigiTimes that claimed Apple was gearing up to shun Samsung’s DRAM chips in favor of those from Elpida Memory.

Samsung’s share price plummeted by 6% shortly after the rumor began to circulate, costing the Korean company around $10 billion in market value.

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Apple TV Packs Custom A5 Chip

The new Apple TV gets its own custom chip

Tim Cook kind of rushed past the Apple TV update yesterday. On the surface of things, not much changed: 1080p was the only real new feature, as the new iOS-like interface and Netflix sign-up are also available on older Apple TVs via update. But under the hood, the little black box is powered by a custom single-core A5 chip.

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Apple Working On Revamped A5 Chip And Totally New A6 Chip At The Same Time [Rumor]

With the announcement of the iPad 3 lurking in the shadows, the web has been buzzing with rumors and leaked parts as everyone tries to solve the puzzle of what the next iPad 3 will look like, and what new hardware it might have. Some have claimed the iPad 3 will sport a new quad-core A6 processor, while others claim it will merely get an improved A5 dual-core chip. It appears the confusion over which processor will actually be included in the iPad 3 stems from the fact that Apple is working on BOTH processors at the same time.

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Apple Has a Truckload of Engineers Working on Its Own Chips for Mobile Devices [Report]

Apple is working fervently on its own chip technology for the post-PC era, according to TechCrunch. Specifically, Apple has 1,000 engineers (or about 5% of its Cupertino workforce) working on its series of processors for upcoming products.

Steve Jobs himself said that “getting low power and smaller is the key to everything” when it comes to chip design. Apple is thinking ahead to the future of the revolution it started with products like the iPhone and iPad.

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Apple Shuns Samsung, Begins Testing A6 Chip with TSMC [Report]

Though the iPhone is still yet to benefit from Apple’s latest dual-core A5 chip, the company has already begun testing its successor, according to a Reuters report. However, it may not be produced by Samsung like its predecessors.

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This Is The Cute Little Chip That Cancels Noise On Your iPhone

Inside every iPhone 4, there’s a darling little chip that, up until now, no one had the slightest inkling about what it might actually do. But those gadget vivisectionists over at iFixIt have finally sussed it out.

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Report: Qualcomm Will Supply Baseband Chips For Next-Gen iPhone and iPad

Recent reports coming out of China that Intel might not have much more time as the exclusive supplier of 3G chipsets for the iPhone and iPad wouldn’t be reason to start expecting a new iPhone coming to a Verizon outlet near you by themselves, but when those reports also peg Qualcomm as Intel’s baseband successor and the possibility of a CDMA iPhone (and iPad!) starts looking a lot more plausible.

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Intel to release three new Arrandale-based mobile chips, just in time for next MacBook Pro refresh

For those unfamiliar with the ebb and wane of Apple’s actually pretty dependable product upgrade cycle, MacRumors‘ Apple Buyer’s Guide is a must–check resource for those looking to buy a new Mac, iPod or iPhone. With a glance, you can see how close any Apple product is to being refreshed, and if you check it now, you’ll see see that the MacBook Pro is only about a month away from getting an update.

So what will change in the next MacBook Pro? The new unibodies are only a year old, so it’s probably nothing much more drastic than a processor update, and not so coincidentally, Intel is planning to launch three new Arrandale-based, 32nm Core i5 and Core i7 mobile processors on January 3rd… just around the time MacBook Pros are historically refreshed.

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