“Apple is discovering it’s harder to split from Samsung than it would like,” Dawn Chmielewski and Ina Fried report for Re/code.
“With the iPhone 6, Apple found an alternative supplier for many of the A8 chips that lend the smarts to its smartphones,” Chmielewski and Fried report. “While Apple had hoped to rely more heavily on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to fabricate the Ax family of processors used in its iOS devices, the company has turned to Samsung for its next-generation A9 chip, according to people with knowledge of the situation.”
“That’s because Samsung holds a technological edge over TSMC when it comes to the latest manufacturing process. Samsung has managed to shrink the size of the transistors on its chips to 14 nanometers — effectively packing more processing power into a smaller space and consuming less power. TSMC is still at 20 nanometers,” Chmielewski and Fried report. “Samsung has invested a staggering sum — $21.4 billion — to ramp up capacity in its semiconductor and display businesses over the last year, and plans to spend even more in 2015. The company has foundries in South Korea and in Austin, Texas. Samsung also partnered last year with GlobalFoundries to bring its 14-nanometer process to its facility in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. [sic*]”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Here’s Al Pacino as Tim Cook:
*GlobalFoundries’ Fab 8 is actually in Malta, NY, situated in the Luther Forest Technology Campus (LFTC), in Saratoga County, NY about 15 miles south of Saratoga Springs, NY. LFTC’s press office is in Saratoga Springs, NY.
