With ‘A6’ chip, Apple likely to move SoC production away from Samsung in 2012

“Apple’s increasingly tenuous relationship with Samsung as a component supplier for its mobile devices could end next year, according to numerous sources inside the semiconductor industry,” Chris Foresman reports for Ars Technica. “The company will likely tap contract fab Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to build its next-generation ARM SoCs, currently dubbed ‘A6,’ sometime in 2012,” Foresman reports.

“Dan Heyler, a semiconductor analyst with Merrill Lynch in Taipei, told the China-based Commercial Times newspaper on Friday that TSMC will most likely be producing ‘A6’ processors for Apple, a next-generation ARM-based design, in 2012,” Foresman reports. “That jibes with what Ars has heard from a plugged-in source—that the chatter on the foundry grapevine about an impending Apple/TSMC deal is growing deafening.”

Foresman reports, “There’s still the remote possibility that Apple could move to Intel if it can find a workable deal to combine its low-power ARM designs with Intel’s new 22nm three-dimensional transistor process. In the meantime, however, Apple has few choices out there to fab its mobile SoCs, and ‘not Samsung’ seems like a smart option at this point in time.”

Read more in the full article here.

Related articles:
RUMOR: Apple to dump Intel for Apple ARM-based chips within 24-36 months – May 6, 2011
RUMOR: Apple inks deal with TSMC foundry for A5 processor; possible setback for Samsung – March 9, 2011

22 Comments

  1. As I’ve said before, it’s not nice to bite the hand that feeds you. In future years Sammy stands to lose Billions. I don’t feel their products will be able to compete and they will rue the day they stabbed their partner in the back.

      1. Those guys (or just one guy, perhaps, since you cannot tell with anonymous posts) is not an MDN member – just a putz with a keyboard.

        Do you see the kind of trash that your anonymous visitors bring to the table, MDN? You blew off my input in the past, so I am calling upon all true members of the MDN family to insist on registered posts on this forum. That is the only way that we can banish the trash. Or are you the ‘hit whores’ in this case, MDN, just like Thurott?

        1. Let’s see: Is Samsung Korean? Yes. Is Korean yellow skin? Yes. Does Samsung act like monkey in this iPhone/iPad business? Yes. So, who is telling the truth and who is calling the name here? You guy are so self-righteous that you will call anything slightly related to identity of a person a racism. In fact, you are racism in your heart so that you are thinking worst of other person.

  2. I would love to know how the conversations go inside Samsung Electronics. It is huge, divisional, and fiercely political. The heads of the two divisions (Chips and Phones) are both ‘Presidents’. Do they compete; do they talk? How are they remunerated? Each division reports earnings separately. One is losing market share and the other is gaining.

    Who knows? They may be both supplier and competitor on purpose, but maybe it is just a cock-up. Given I generally see the world as run by cock-up rather than cunning, I know where my money is.

  3. @MDN
    I don’t come here for My Daily Nastiness.

    Irrelevant political ranting in bad enough, but the racism is absolutely not acceptable. Why are such comments allowed to stand? Please take them down. Thanks.

    1. Take back your MDN forum! Join me and make your opinion known! This is the answer that I received from MDN on 03 Nov 2010 when I suggested allowing only registered users to post on MDN:

      I guess that “Mac News Comes First” on MDN only when it won’t jeopardize the hits from whatever trashy source. Come on, MDN, grow a pair and listen to your base – or lose it.

      ——

      Hello,

      We value the ability to allow non-registered visitors to comment freely and easily.

      Thanks,


      Webmaster
      MacDailyNews
      “Where Mac News Comes First”
      http://www.macdailynews.com/

      On Nov 3, 2010, at 9:30 AMEDT, wrote:

      There has been far too much political commentary on MDN forums for several years, and the majority of the political trolls are both verbose and crude. The vast majority also post anonymously.

      I request that you require a registered ID in order to post in the MDN forum. Anyone with something worthwhile to say (hopefully involving Apple in some way) will register. And any registered person who abuses the system can easily be blocked.

      Sure, the trolls can create a new MDN registered ID using a different throwaway email address. But that requires some work, which will discourage the majority of the trolls. We will attempt to ignore the rest.

  4. Pardon the generalization, but the problem with manufacturing in Asia is that IP theft is rampant — hence the rise of LG, Samsung, Hyundai, all of China, ….

    If you can’t beat their intelligence, give their corporate masters a tax break and steal their IP!

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