COO Jeff Williams praises TSMC for 'intense' relationship with Apple, 100% supply of A11 B...

Posted:
in iPhone edited October 2017
Apple Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams spoke at TSMC's 30th anniversary celebration, and not only praised the company for an "intense" relationship with Apple developing the A11 Bionic processor, but also noted that the iPhone will be a driving force to advance artificial intelligence in the future with implications for the world.




Williams talked about the iPhone, and TSMC's contribution to the device at the celebration -- and Apple's impact on the world, using TSMC components.

"If in the next ten years, from a society standpoint, we just do a few "gee-whiz" things like flying car kind of dreams, and then the rest of the time we're using the faster chips to do the same things we're doing faster, we will have squandered one of the biggest opportunities in front of us," said Williams. "I think we're at an inflection point, much like my colleagues, with on-device computing, coupled with the potential of AI, to really, really change the world. And, we couldn't be more excited about it at Apple"

Williams believes that artificial intelligence won't be stuck on mobile, but can expand the quality of life for humanity. Specifically naming health care as an avenue of improvement, Williams said that data can be shared quicker, more contextually, and with more security using artificial intelligence breakthroughs -- without losing privacy.

"TSMC invested $9 billion and had 6000 people working around the clock to bring up a ... fab in a record 11 months -- and in the end the execution was flawless. We've gone on to ship over half a billion chips together in that short window." said Williams, thanking the TSMC CEO. "There are not many companies that will spend $9 billion on a single bet."

A slide presented by the company at the presentation called Apple the top technology company in the TSMC ecosystem.

All of Williams's remarks are available from TSMC, at approximately one hour and 30 minutes into a video made available on Monday.

Williams joined Apple in 1998 as head of worldwide procurement and in 2004 he was named vice president of Operations. He was named as Apple's chief operating officer in 2010 and oversees Apple's entire supply chain, service and support channels, and directs the development of the Apple Watch.
watto_cobra

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 18
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,350member
    So they supply 100% of Apple's A11; is that 100% of what they make, or do they have other irons in the fire, in case/when Apple decides to 'go another direction'.
    cornchip
  • Reply 2 of 18
    No A11 bionics from Samsung. Excellent for TSMC!
    schlackJWSCwatto_cobralollivercornchip
  • Reply 3 of 18
    schlackschlack Posts: 719member
    odd that he directs the development of the Apple Watch in addition to overseeing operations. don't get me wrong, I think he's done a great job with the Apple Watch, but just seems like a full time job within itself.
    watto_cobracornchip
  • Reply 4 of 18
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    I just watched Jobs’ presentation of the first iPod earlier today, and I could swear that I saw Williams in the audience in at least one fairly close up shot. That’s back in 2001, I believe.
    radarthekatwatto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 18
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member
    Fab in a record 11 months ............ Wow, just Wow. Impossible is nothing!

    I hope Apple sticks with TSMC after 7nm, I am not entirely sure how 7nm+ will play out. All foundries, GF, Samsung, TSMC are expected to have 7nm+ ( Or the equivalent of each other ) in 2019. And there is only ONE player ( ASML ) in the EUV industry. And there are report of Samsung buying a year worth of ASML EUV production capacity.........

    Or Apple will just use more patterning with 7nm+, and leave the exotic EUV for 5nm. Which is entirely possible as Apple will ships more chips then Intel in 2017/2018.
  • Reply 6 of 18
    melgross said:
    I just watched Jobs’ presentation of the first iPod earlier today, and I could swear that I saw Williams in the audience in at least one fairly close up shot. That’s back in 2001, I believe.
    I still get the distinct impression that Williams is going to be the next Apple CEO. He seems to be getting groomed for the job.
    watto_cobrachasm
  • Reply 7 of 18
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member

    I did this so that YOU didn’t have too! A shot that looks like Jeff, at the top.

    and, a deleted image is showing up in this post, which I didn’t select, and isn’t even in my Photos app. Chalk up another bug I’ll have to report.

     

    edited October 2017 watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 18
    melgross said:

    and, a deleted image is showing up in this post, which I didn’t select, and isn’t even in my Photos app. Chalk up another bug I’ll have to report.


     

    Looks like your family photos (?) are showing up, Mel. That's a bad bug.
  • Reply 9 of 18
    The next Tim?
    watto_cobracornchip
  • Reply 10 of 18
    levilevi Posts: 344member
    macgui said:
    So they supply 100% of Apple's A11; is that 100% of what they make, or do they have other irons in the fire, in case/when Apple decides to 'go another direction'.
    No, they’re a major supplier and also work with other OEMs. As of now, they are the only chip builder other than Samsung positioned to supply Apple (in terms of quality of tech, and capacity). Unlike Samsung and others, they are not a competitor to Apple in any way.
    watto_cobralollivercornchip
  • Reply 11 of 18
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    I can’t find any confirmation in the article that they are the sole supplier of A11Bionic. 
    cornchip
  • Reply 12 of 18
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    melgross said:

    and, a deleted image is showing up in this post, which I didn’t select, and isn’t even in my Photos app. Chalk up another bug I’ll have to report.


     

    Looks like your family photos (?) are showing up, Mel. That's a bad bug.
    A photo of a friend and his daughter at lunch last Friday. The wonderful focus is why it was deleted.

    this really is strange. I’m using my iPad, and captured the image from the old video that’s on MacRumors. I shrunk the size because AI won’t accept a larger file, so it says. It’s in Photos on this iPad. I selected it using the pic capture window here, selecting the resized image from Photos.

    but that other image was on my iPhone, and was never transferred to the iPad at all. So how it appeared here is odd, to say the least. I’ve never had anything like that happen before. And for some reason, even though I selected it here, In edit mode for my post, I couldn’t delete it. That’s also odd.
    edited October 2017
  • Reply 13 of 18
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    cali said:
    I can’t find any confirmation in the article that they are the sole supplier of A11Bionic. 
    I believe it’s been said in other articles.
  • Reply 14 of 18
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    melgross said:
    cali said:
    I can’t find any confirmation in the article that they are the sole supplier of A11Bionic. 
    I believe it’s been said in other articles.
    I was hoping to find a quote or something.

    With Apple articles you can’t be sure because of rumors and analysts mingling with facts. 
    lolliver
  • Reply 15 of 18
    cali said:
    melgross said:
    cali said:
    I can’t find any confirmation in the article that they are the sole supplier of A11Bionic. 
    I believe it’s been said in other articles.
    I was hoping to find a quote or something.

    With Apple articles you can’t be sure because of rumors and analysts mingling with facts. 
    We all would have read by now if Samsung was a co-supplier of the A11 Bionic. There would have hundreds of stories comparing the performance of the two chips as was done in the past. 

    From 9t05mac... “Apple later switched to using a mix of TSMC and Samsung to make its A-series chips before switching back to using TSMC as its sole supplier. While Samsung its making efforts to win back some Apple chip-making business, TSMC said last week that it expects to defend its position.”
    watto_cobralolliver
  • Reply 16 of 18
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    edited October 2017 watto_cobra
  • Reply 17 of 18
    cornchipcornchip Posts: 1,945member
    melgross said:
    Just a timeline with no real depth. Did I miss something?
  • Reply 18 of 18
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    cornchip said:
    melgross said:
    Just a timeline with no real depth. Did I miss something?
    Plenty wnough depth to give people knowledge about the different chips Apple used and designed. It’s an obvious overview. It wasn’t intended to be a detailed technical discussion. If you want that, go to anandtech and look up Apple’s SoCs and devices that use them.
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