Apple's upcoming 2022 iPad Pro models will use chips built on TSMC's cutting-edge three-nanometer manufacturing process, resulting in a speed boost and lower power consumption.
Samsung is reportedly looking to hire Apple's and AMD's former silicon engineers to help it create a custom CPU after shuttering its in-house semiconductor team recently.
According to a new report, Apple has been developing a more powerful Mac mini around the same chip as the next MacBook Pro to replace its high-end Intel-based counterpart.
The world's leading semiconductor foundry has issued a warning predicting that the global chip shortage that's hurting technology companies the most won't be resolved anytime soon.
The coronavirus pandemic has caused a global chip shortage—that's why you haven't been able to purchase your PlayStation 5—and Apple has been immune to this problem, up until now.
While M1 Macs have the RAM and SSD soldered to the logic board, it's been discovered that users armed with patience may be able to upgrade the memory and storage of Apple's M1 chip.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is addressing a chip shortage plaguing the global semiconductor industry by increasing its planned investment in expanding production capacity to a whopping $100 billion, a major financial commitment.
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$100B expenditure over the next year to boost output. TSMC's been running at 100% capacity over the last year. It previously planned to spend $28B in 2021 alone. TSMC also builds chips for Nvidia, Qualcomm and others. A staggering financial commitmentTSMC already planned a record capital expenditure of $28 billion in 2021 alone, but that was before the pandemic and stay-at-home measures boosted demand for electronics significantly.
Bloomberg has TSMC's statement acknowledging the massive capital expenditure:
In order to keep up with demand, TSMC expects to invest $100 billion over the next three years to increase capacity to support the manufacturing and research and development of advanced semiconductor technologies. TSMC is working closely with our customers to address their needs in a sustainable manner.
CEO C.C. Wei told customers that TSMC's fabrication facilities have been “running at over hundred percent utilization over the past twelve months.” Still, demand outpaced supply and not even hiring thousands of additional engineers and having multiple new fabrication facilities under construction could change that, he wrote recently in a letter to customers.
TSMC is entering a period of higher growth as the multiyear megatrends of 5G and HPC are expected to fuel strong demand for our semiconductor technologies in the next several years.
TSMC's investment should be good news for Apple.
Global chip shortages snarl electronicsApple has relied on TSMC's foundry service for years now—According to a recent supply chain report, Apple has already booked the initial production capacity of TSMC's four-nanometre chips for its next-generation Macs.
Demand for semiconductors of all stripes, buoyed by the pandemic, has caused a major global chip shortage which has, in turn, snarled everything from smartphones and tablets to cars.
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The world's biggest independent semiconductor foundry, TSMC was awarded an Apple contract following legal disputes between the Cupertino firm and Samsung over the iPhone's look and feel. Aside from Apple, TSMC counts as its customers many of the leading fabless semiconductor companies like Nvidia, Qualcomm, AMD, Broadcom, Marvell and MediaTek.
A semiconductor foundry is basically a producer of chips designed by others.
Meanwhile, Intel will pour $20 billion into two new domestic factories in Arizona to compete with TSMC as it plans to build chips for other companies. As for Samsung, it's allocated about $100 billion for an expansion of its own semiconductor business over the next ten years.
Apple's contracted Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to build next-generation chips for the upcoming iPhone 13 and its next Mac computers ahead of schedule.
While Intel and the rest of the industry have been in a state of shock since Apple unveiled its M1 laptop chip last month, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is not standing still. According to a leaker, the Santa Clara, California-headquartered semiconductor company has two Apple M1 competitor chips in prototype stages that are apparently “almost ready”.
Apple is reportedly planning to manufacture next year's iPhone, iPad and Mac chips on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) 5nm+ and 4nm process technologies. By comparison, the current A14 chips in the latest iPhones and the M1 chips in the new MacBook Air, Mac mini and 13-inch MacBook Pro are being fabbed on TSMC's five-nanometer process.
The baseline $999 model of Apple's refreshed MacBook Air notebook, powered by its new M1 laptop chip, comes with seven graphics cores instead of eight. That's because Apple is salvaging some weaker chips by disabling one core, a process known as binning.
Tucked away as a side-note in today’s report by The China Times newspaper outlining the first Apple Silicon products is a mention of Apple’s next-generation A15 system-on-a-chip.
