“One of the first rumors regarding the next-gen iPhone has just hit us,” Peter K. reports for PhoneArena.
“According to Commercial Times, a Chinese newspaper, the Taiwan-based TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) will be the exclusive manufacturer behind Apple’s next mobile chipset, the Apple A10 SoC,” Peter K. reports. “According to the rumor mill, it will be a 64-bit chip based on TSMC’s in-house 16nm FinFET manufacturing process, while the WLP (wafer-level packaging) of the chip will also be TSMC’s own backend integrated fan-out (InFO) one.”
“Interestingly, a few months ago we told you that TSMC is testing its own 10nm chips that would give it advantage over Samsung in the race for more Apple A10 orders,” Peter K. reports. “We don’t know whether TSMC’s tests have been successful – if they have been, it might be speculated that the Apple A10 could turn out to be a 10nm chipset.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ve heard this one many times before, so take it with much salt.
I’ll take chips and salsa.
I didn’t need anything other than the headline to immediately agree with MDN’s take. Apple would be insane at this point to do an “exclusive” anything, and they know it. Pity these “analysts” don’t.
“We’ve heard this one many times before, so take it with much salt.”
I take ALL statements re: Apple/Apple products as baseless rumors, UNTIL APPLE ANNOUNCES, with a huge grain of salt.
The worst “expert” is Ming Chi Kuo. Has anybody (other than me) charted his pronouncements? If you had you’d have found a dismal track record. A disturbing number are unproveable, even after the fact. Take, for instance, his pronouncement today that initial supplies of the iPhone 6S/6S Plus will be constrained by production problems with a key component. Everybody gets all in a twit about this. Then Apple announces record sales, and those same believers forget all about Kuo’s earlier – false – statement.
The most recently announced iPhones are not even shipping yet, and the rumors for the next iPhone are already starting.
Well, at least we got four days respite.
And, as far as 10 nm chips goes —- Even Chipzilla (Intel) has not worked out the kinks on their 10 nm chips, and they don’t expect to have that worked out fully until some time in 2017.
Well it’s fair to say when dealing with something as complex as fabricating chips, you do need a very long “test” period before actually going into production.
I thought I remember reading that it usually takes a couple of years for the design/development phase, and then another year for fabrication testing/tweaking before actual mass production can begin. Which means Apple would be working with all suppliers right now to get fabrication started.
Here’s hoping TSMC can do an overall good a job as Samsung producing those chips. I consider it rather risky for Apple to not have some backup plan for production when so much is at stake. Any production glitches involving iPhone manufacture would be devastating for Apple. I’m sure Apple realizes this and would never grant an exclusive to one company for such a critical component.
Thank you magnificent, The risk involved with “exclusive” vendors is enormous. A misstep brings production to a standstill. At best I see TSN
MC garnering 75% of Apple’s SoC needs.
As an aside, this is why “supply chain” checks are so terribly unreliable. Apple’s supply chain is incredibly complex. Data extrapolated from even a dozen such vendors is virtually useless, as year to year production volumes (in relation to actual sales) varies between venders.
Samsung beat them last time “illegally”!