TSMC, Samsung get orders for Apple’s next-gen 14/16nm A-series chips, sources say

8 Comments

“Samsung Electronics has signed a contract for the production of Apple’s next-generation smartphone application processors to be used in 2015 using 14/16nm FinFET processes, according to sources within Apple’s supply chain,” Josephine Lien and Jessie Shen report for DigiTimes.

“The sources also reiterated that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), which is believed to be the main foundry for 20nm A-series chips for Apple’s 2014 iPhone series, has already grabbed a portion of the 14/16nm FinFET chip orders from the smartphone vendor,” Lien and Shen report. “Samsung will use its 14nm FinFET process to manufacture a portion of the A-series chips for Apple’s 2015 iPhone series, and the remainder of the chips will be built using TSMC’s 16nm FinFET technology, the sources indicated.”

Lien and Shen report, “TSMC should land 60-70% of Apple’s total 14/16nm chip orders, with the remaining 30-40% to be taken over by Samsung.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s attempts to wean themselves off their Samsung chip stamping dependency is proving to be a depressingly drawn-out affair. Being forced to lavishly finance those who repeatedly and unapologetically steal from you while abusing FRAND to endlessly sue you around the world has to be maddening.

On another note, when these chips turn up in Macs and OS X and iOS converge in important, underlying ways, don’t be surprised.

8 Comments

  1. I am sure that Mac fans would strongly prefer to cut Samsung off immediately, if not sooner. But it appears that Apple is doing everything that it can to wean itself from Samsung while maintaining access to large quantities of high-quality CPUs manufactured using cutting edge technologies for maximum performance per watt with reasonable yield (cost). Very few companies offer these capabilities and services, and it takes time and $B to set up new foundries. Meanwhile, semiconductor manufacturing technology keeps marching forward to smaller and smaller feature sizes.

    I have no doubt that Apple will eventually secure its independence from Samsung. But don’t expect it anytime soon.

    Reply

  2. Apple & Samsung is a marriage made in heaven. They can’t do without each other. Fact is they live in a symbiotic environment where each copies off the other.

    Yes, at the start Samsung copied the look and feel of Apple’s iPhone OS because there really was nothing better in the world to copy. Steve Jobs’ genius saw to that. The BlackBerry OS which was the dominant smartphone platform at the time unfortunately looked like a piece of ocean flotsam itself.

    But after Steve Jobs’ passing, Apple had no one to guide them to the next level of OS awesomeness so they fell back to the easiest option of copying their biggest competitor which by then had eaten away their market share leaving them in a minority position. And now due to extensive copying of Android and Samsung’s TouchWiz, Apple has achieved convergence with the flatness and ugliness of Android in the shape of iOS 7.

    Congratulations to the twins of tech that are enjoined at the hip.

    Reply

    1. So true /s.

      Just where would Apple be if it did not totally copy Samdung and its total innovation. Steve Jobs being the only brain in Apple, it just died after his death. Why we all expect it to drop totally dead any moment now.

      I hear that Apple copied its 64 bit smartphone from samsung and even its new mac pro line. Shame on Apple for copying so. And shame on Apple for using race remarks in its latest win in the courts. Truly.

      /s so big its making my cheeks hurt,,,,,, the lower ones…. LOL

      Reply

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