Having spent the best part of 2015 battling over who would win orders from Apple, TSMC and Samsung have both started volume production of the new A9 chips for the upcoming iPhone 6s, according to a new report.
Foxconn’s CEO Terry Gou is no fan of Samsung. In fact, according to a new report, he’s been trying to use his influence as Apple’s biggest manufacturing partner to get Apple to lessen its dependency on Samsung — while a giving a shot to other companies.
The reason? He thinks Taiwanese manufacturers need to work together to overcome the growing threat of the South Korean tech giant, which could potentially swallow all of their jobs.
Apple has been trying to wean itself from being dependent on Samsung’s smartphone components for years, but breaking up is proving nearly impossible to do.
According to a report from Recode, Apple is turning back to Samsung to make the next-generation A9 processors that will make their way into the iPhone and iPad later this year.
In public, the big smartphone competition may be between Apple and Samsung, but behind the scenes the faltering Samsung has another battle on its hands: with rival manufacturer TSMC over who gets to build the A9 processor for the next generation iPhone.
And while Samsung is decisively losing the battle to sell the most smartphones in the marketplace, the A9 chip orders could be one clash it is going to emerge victorious from!
Speculation about who is going to build Apple’s A9 processor may be coming to a halt, as Korea’s Electronic Times reports today that not only has Samsung won the contract from Apple, but it’s also entered production.
As per the report, Samsung began fabrication on the new system-on-chip yesterday at its chipmaking facility in Austin, Texas, using a 14 nanometer process.
GlobalFoundries, a.k.a. the largest silicon foundry in the United States, is pushing to to become a mobile device chipmaker for Apple, according to a new report.
On the back of the enormous success of the iPhone 6, the battle to build Apple’s next generation 14-nanometer A9 chips has been raging as of late — with the three leaders being Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Samsung and GlobalFoundries.
The chips in question are set to debut with Apple’s 2015 iOS devices, including the next generation iPhones and iPads.
Samsung will snap up the majority of the next generation iPhone A9 chip orders, while Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will manufacture the chips for the next iPad devices, according to a new report coming out of China.
This differs from the current iPhone 6 devices, where TSMC is reportedly responsible for producing the A8 chips thanks to a deal inked in 2013.
Although it was previously reported that the two companies were locked in a tussle to pick up the Apple orders, Samsung apparently beat out TSMC by quoting Apple lower prices for the 14nm FinFET process production. Samsung has upped its game to secure Apple orders following its posted dismal Q3 earnings, which were down a whopping 60 percent in operating profit from the same period in 2013.
Competition is heating up between Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to build Apple’s next generation A9 chips, according to a new report citing industry sources.
TSMC is currently manufacturing the majority of the A8 chips used in Apple’s latest iPhones, thanks to a deal inked in 2013. Samsung, however, is keen to reestablish its previous position as the sole provider of Apple’s A-series chips — and is willing to lower its quotes to do so.
Samsung is also pushing the fact that it can provide other services to Apple, including the manufacture of flash memory and backend services in-house.
Apple is still reliant on Samsung for many of the iPhone’s internal components, including the fabrication of its almighty A-series processors, but in an effort to secure more processor orders from Apple, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is already ahead of schedule with production of the next-generation A9 processor.
Samsung and GlobalFoundries have reportedly landed orders from Apple to produce the 14-nanometer A9 processor starting next year, according to DigiTimes.
These 14nm chips will be created in GlobalFoundries’ Fab 8 factory in Malta, New York, which Samsung will also use to produce Apple’s A-series chips. DigiTimes’ source suggests that the two foundries plan to push their initial 14nm LPE (low power early) process — which was verified back in February — into risk production in Q4 this year, with small volume production in early 2015.
Samsung Electronics has reached a deal with Apple to supply A9 processors for the iPhone 7 from 2015, The Korea Economic Daily reports. Samsung has been producing Apple’s mobile processors since the iPhone first launched in 2007, but recent rumors have claimed the Cupertino company has been looking to take its business elsewhere.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has reached a deal with Apple to supply its next-generation A8, A9, and A9X processors for iOS devices, according to industry sources. The company will reportedly begin manufacturing the chips using a 20-nanometer process, then upgrade to 16-nanometer and later 10-nanometer processes in the future.