Chips

Report: TSMC to begin making quad-core mobile chips for Apple beginning 2014

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 20, 2017

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry with its headquarters located in the Hsinchu Science Park in Hsinchu, Taiwan, will according to an analyst's research note begin making next-generation quad-core mobile chips for iPhones, iPod touches and iPads sometime in 2014. We heard before that TSMC has a “good chance” of winning Apple’s chip biz in 2014 and this report reaffirms the notion...

Samsung’s chip wizard defects to Apple

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 8, 2016

An interesting development here in the never-ending Apple-Samsung saga. Per The Wall Street Journal, Apple has successfully lured Jim Mergard, one of Samsung's most noted chip design luminaries, who joined the Mac maker to presumable help its silicon team create new processors for Apple devices. This has gotta be a blow to South Korea-based Samsung, whose components arm manufactures processors for iPhones, iPads and iPods, which are designed internally by Apple's team of silicon engineers.

Mergard is said to have been tasked with developing ARM chips for servers at Samsung. Prior to joining Samsung, the chip expert was charged with the development of a “high-profile AMD chip that carried the code name Brazos and was designed for low-end portable computers”. It wasn't immediately clear from the report whether Mergard joined Apple's team that creates mobile chips of the unit which develops desktop products...

Apple seeking silicon wizards as it preps to fully customize A7 chip for 2013 iOS devices

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

Speedier, smaller and even more power-efficient mobile chip designs are already in the works for future iOS devices so it comes as little surprise that Apple remains on a hiring spree, seeking talented semiconductor experts left and right.

As you know, Apple's current system-on-a-chip (SoC) modules found inside iPhones, iPods and iPads typically pack in several processing and graphic cores, in addition to the memory controller, RAM and the essential control logic - all onto a single piece of silicon die.

A new job posting reveals Apple is looking for an "SoC Modelling Architect / Lead" who will be tasked with managing its in-house team which designs next-generation processors for iOS devices...

The iPhone 5’s A6 processor can dynamically vary its clock speed for performance

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated April 18, 2018

The A6 chip which debuted on the iPhone 5 earlier this month can do some pretty clever tricks, stemming from a heavily customized ARMv7 design. Benchmark data suggests that the A6 can dynamically overclock itself to up to 1.3GHz and downclock to just 500MHz, depending on workload.

This is nothing new in chip design, of course (just ask Nvidia or Qualcomm). But given that Apple designs its chips in-house based on ARM and Imagination Technologies blueprints, it shows just how far along Cupertino is versus companies that use off-the-shelf chips which are not as power or performance-efficient as the A6...

Apple could be close to shifting CPU orders away from Samsung

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 14, 2012

The iPhone 5 comes with a brand new Apple-designed A6 chip for a twofold jump in CPU/GPU performance. In fact, the iPhone 5 could easily be the first ARM Cortex-A15 smartphone on the market. The A6 is likely manufactured on Samsung's 32-nanometer process, but probably not for long as Apple has been looking to take its chip contract elsewhere.

There ain't many places to go: Intel sucks at power management and Samsung is #2 chip vendor in the world. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), however, is the world's largest dedicated independent semiconductor foundry and Apple could be closer than previously thought to shifting production contracts away from Samsung and towards TSMC.

Can you say "stock plunge"?

Apple’s new A6 chip runs two ARM Cortex A15 cores, quad-core GPU

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 12, 2012

Surprisingly enough, the iPhone 5 comes with Apple's in-house A6 chip (labeled "S5L8950X") rather than a souped up version of the A5X chip, as previously thought. Apple's Tech Specs page for the iPhone 5 doesn't even mention the A6 (a norm for Cupertino). The Compare iPhones page names the chip, however without divulging an iota about its architectural underpinnings.

Likewise, Apple executives at today's presser shied away from going into the technicalities like core counts and clock speeds and would only mention a twofold jump in CPU and GPU performance. It would nonetheless appear Apple has beaten the likes of Samsung and Texas Instruments in delivering the world's first phone powered by ARM's Cortex A15 CPU platform...

New iPhone 5 logic board photo: A6 chip, Qualcomm LTE modem, Hynix flash

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 12, 2012

We're less than three hours away from Apple's big presser and, conveniently, a new high-quality photo surfaced alleging to represent the iPhone 5 logic board. From what can be gleaned, the board clearly shows an Apple-designed chip labeled "A6", in addition to other chips that indicate LTE world-phone functionality, also proving that Apple could indeed be reducing its dependency on fellow smartphone maker and frenemy Samsung, which supplies Cupertino with more than one-third of components that go inside the current-generation iPhone...

Poll: what’s this square thing inside the iPhone 5 for?

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 25, 2016

A set of four new high-quality photographs have emerged, seemingly depicting the complete front assembly of Apple's next iPhone, due for unveiling at a San Francisco media event next Wednesday. These new images provide a detailed look at a square chip which leaked earlier and prompted pundits to speculate that it houses a Near-Field Communications (NFC) sensor, later debunked by the eagle-eyed experts over at AnandTech.

One of the theories has it that this thing is a fingerprint sensor, based on Apple's hasty $356 million acquisition of smart sensor maker AuthenTec. There are other possible answers to this mystery and I couldn't help myself collecting all the plausible possibilities in an amusing poll, included right below...

Apple’s $1B can’t buy exclusive TSMC chip deal

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Nowadays, $1 billion doesn't get as much as it used to. That's what Apple reportedly discovered when it and Qualcomm each offered $1 billion for exclusive access to the production output of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest chip producer. TSMC turned both companies down flat, reports Bloomberg.

Maybe TSMC has been following the Apple-Samsung trial. Back in 2011, before the two rivals' frenemies relationship had turned downright rabid. The Cupertino, Calif. company plunked down $7.8 billion for Samsung parts, turning it into the South Korean firm's largest customer. TSMC's finance chief wanted nothing of that.

Samsung to invest $4 billion in iPad, iPhone chip plant

Ed Sutherland ∙ August 21, 2012

Imagine a symbiotic relationship where each party depends on the other, but they are continually fighting and you'll have a good picture of Apple and Samsung. The latest episode in the ultimate case of frenemies happened Tuesday as the South Korean chip giant pledged nearly $4 billion to upgrade a plant producing chips for Apple's iPhone and iPad.

Samsung said it will plunk down around $4 billion to renovate the Austin, Texas plant in order to boost production of ARM-based chips, many used in Apple's iPhone, iPad and other consumer technology, Reuters reports today. This after Samsung just unveiled plans to build in South Korea a new $1.98 billion logic chip plant for Apple and other smartphone makers...

Apple now accounts for 8.8% of Samsung’s revenue

Christian Zibreg ∙ August 7, 2012

Despite a massive legal spat between Apple and Samsung over who copied whose tablets and smartphones, the two frenemies remain dependent on each other's business. Samsung makes Apple's in-house designed mobile processors and supplies the iPhone maker with massive amounts of displays and flash memory chips for iOS devices.

A new report suggests the Apple account is worth a whopping 8.8 percent of Samsung's revenue, making Apple Samsung's largest customer and perhaps giving Cupertino some added leverage in its business and legal dealings with the South Korea-headquartered conglomerate. The next biggest Samsung client? Read on...