Rumor: Possible loss of Apple orders may force Samsung to delay construction of new chip fab
A tenuous rumor out of Asia on Wednesday claims Samsung may delay building a new chip fabrication facility for advanced mobile processors due to a suspected diversification in Apple's supply chain.
Citing "industry sources," the sometimes reliable DigiTimes said Samsung is "likely" to put off construction of the new plant, allegedly called "Line-17," over the possibility that the company will lose chip orders from Apple in the coming months.
According to sources, the South Korean electronics giant is looking to build the plant in its home country, which would be a major change from the current setup which has Samsung's Austin, Texas factory churning out Apple's A-series chips.
The new facility, reportedly a $3.7 billon to $5.5 billion investment, is scheduled to start production in the beginning of 2014 and will be making mobile CPUs based on advanced 20-nanometer and 14-nanometer processes.
Samsung-built A6X SoC found in Apple's fourth-generation iPad. | Source: Chipworks
Samsung acts as the forge for the system-on-chips used in iOS devices, however recent rumblings have suggested that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will be taking over some fabrication duties for Apple's next-generation silicon by late 2013. Reports of the purported switch have been circulating for well over a year, however no official announcement has been made, and Samsung continues to be the exclusive manufacturer of the Apple-designed processors.
As for the TSMC rumor, the sources said Apple will take delivery of a trial run of SoCs built on the firm's 20nm process in early 2013.
Citing "industry sources," the sometimes reliable DigiTimes said Samsung is "likely" to put off construction of the new plant, allegedly called "Line-17," over the possibility that the company will lose chip orders from Apple in the coming months.
According to sources, the South Korean electronics giant is looking to build the plant in its home country, which would be a major change from the current setup which has Samsung's Austin, Texas factory churning out Apple's A-series chips.
The new facility, reportedly a $3.7 billon to $5.5 billion investment, is scheduled to start production in the beginning of 2014 and will be making mobile CPUs based on advanced 20-nanometer and 14-nanometer processes.
Samsung-built A6X SoC found in Apple's fourth-generation iPad. | Source: Chipworks
Samsung acts as the forge for the system-on-chips used in iOS devices, however recent rumblings have suggested that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. will be taking over some fabrication duties for Apple's next-generation silicon by late 2013. Reports of the purported switch have been circulating for well over a year, however no official announcement has been made, and Samsung continues to be the exclusive manufacturer of the Apple-designed processors.
As for the TSMC rumor, the sources said Apple will take delivery of a trial run of SoCs built on the firm's 20nm process in early 2013.
Comments
Translation; we pissed off our biggest customer and they've replaced our product.
Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Originally Posted by storneo
Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
They ate the hand and are now being patted on the head by their owner. Maybe ONE squirt from the spray bottle.
No one can possibly defend them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
They ate the hand and are now being patted on the head by their owner. Maybe ONE squirt from the spray bottle.
No one can possibly defend them.
Who is the owner in this analogy?
Originally Posted by GregInPrague
Who is the owner in this analogy?
Courts.
I wonder how many more times Samsung will have to spit in the faces of those who blindly support them before they come to their senses and smell the roses.
Samsung doesn't care about anything except ruthlessly furthering the interests of the mainly family based empire who owns them.
Originally Posted by hill60
I wonder how many more times Samsung will have to spit in the faces of those who blindly support them before they come to their senses and smell the roses.
As long as there are people who hate Apple, Samsung has supporters. At least, since supporting Microsoft against Apple stopped being possible.
deleted
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacRulez
What will this mean for the $4 billion dollar expansion of their TX plant? If Apple continues to move this sort of work to other vendors who manufacture only in China, will it cost Texas those jobs?
Meanwhile Samsung manufacture their handsets in Vietnam.