“The A5 processor – the brain in the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 – is now made in a sprawling 1.6 million square feet factory in Austin owned by Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics, according to people familiar with the operation,” Poornima Gupta reports for Reuters. “One of the few major components to be sourced from within the United States, the A5 processor is built by Samsung in a newly constructed $3.6 billion non-memory chip production line that reached full production in early December.”

“One of the few major components to be sourced from within the United States, the A5 processor is built by Samsung in a newly constructed $3.6 billion non-memory chip production line that reached full production in early December,” Gupta reports. “Nearly all of the output of the non-memory chip production from the factory – which is the size of about nine football fields – is dedicated to producing Apple chips, one of the people said.”

“The powerful A5 processor, which uses technology licensed from Britain’s ARM Holdings, is designed by Apple in California,” Gupta reports. “The A5 chip debuted in Apple’s iPad 2 in March and now also powers the new iPhone 4S. The 120 square millimeter chip is twice as fast as its predecessor, the A4… Samsung has added about 1,100 jobs to support the new non-memory chip production in the factory, which produces 40,000 silicon wafers every month, a Samsung spokeswoman said… Austin is also home to an Apple customer call center that deals with customer[s]… in North America, Apple’s biggest market. The Cupertino company employs thousands in that facility, who deal with calls ranging from complaints to support.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]