“Apple supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., or TSMC, was an analyst darling this spring. But TSMC’s fortune took a drastic turn in mid-July, after its management said the company may lose market share next year, especially in the 14nm processor arena,” Shuli Ren reports for Barron’s. “Last week, TSMC took another beating after its Taiwanese competitors UMC and Siliconware Precision Industries guided weak smartphone chips shipments outlooks. Shares of TSMC are down over 10% from a month ago and is now up only 17.9% year-to-date.”
Ren reports, “Always at the forefront of the technology, Apple will move on, regardless of the initial cost, argued Bernstein analysts Mark Li and David Dai: ‘Considering the performance/cost ratio of 20nm vs. 14/16nm, Apple’s history, and the competitive pressure, we believe Apple most likely will migrate from 20nm to 14/16nm in 2H15… 16-FinFET offers 30% better performance and 15% area reduction from 20nm. We think Apple can’t afford to ignore such substantial improvements.”
Read more in the full article here.
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Nay! Me thinks Apple inc. can afford what the US coffers cannot!!!
If they chose to ignore the so called substantial improvements, it is because they can!
Apple has not even moved to 20 nm, and these “analysts” talk about 14-16 already.
This article is contradictory and I don’t think MDN realizes it.
If Apple is going to migrate to 14/16 nm, how will they do it without TSMC?
Intel has 14nm expertise, I am awaiting Apple/Intel agreement to fab ARM SoC. I have read some compelling arguments recently that suggest this is the best way for Apple to satisfy their chip appetite and get off the Samsung habit at the same time. If this happened Samsung would be in a big hole.
Back to Samsung is the only way to go for Apple if they want to retain their image of quality.
Could the folks downvoting the comment suggest who besides Samsung and Intel (which won’t fab a competing CPU) is available to build next-generation chips if TSC isn’t?
BWAHAHAHAHA! Good one ‘JP’ (anonymous coward). But remember to add the “/s” next time please.
Will Apple + IBM create a new POWER chip…? Will IBM help Apple with more powerful A Series CPU?