TSMC reportedly sole supplier of next-gen 'iPhone 7' A-series chip

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iPhone edited February 2016
A report claims Apple will rely solely on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company to produce the next-generation system-on-chip design destined to power this year's iPhone hardware refresh, beating out longtime Apple partner Samsung.




Citing industry sources, the Electronic Times says TSMC has won exclusive rights to manufacture Apple's new chip, to be called "A10" if naming conventions continue, reports Reuters. The Taiwan-based firm supposedly beat Samsung in the race to scale 10-nanometer process technology.

Today's report jibes with recent rumors and analysis suggesting TSMC's advanced InFO (integrated fan out) architecture out classed Samsung capabilities. InFO tech stacks embedded chips on top of each for direct mounting on a circuit board, reducing thickness and weight.

If true, the change would be a massive shift from Apple's current supply chain strategy. Estimates peg Samsung production of A9 chip production at as much as 70 percent, with TSMC picking up the slack.

Apple is widely expected to launch a redesigned "iPhone 7" during the usual fall iPhone update window. While the current A9 SoC is an extremely capable processor, it might not be enough to support the dual rear-facing cameras Apple is rumored to include in this year's flagship handset. Other high-end features thought to debut alongside iPhone 7 include wireless charging, a potential shift away from the aging 3.5mm headphone jack and a thinner chassis.

While the "A10" chip is likely bound for iPhone, more powerful variants are expected to power next-gen iPad models. Supplier breakdowns for those specialized SoCs has not been revealed.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 28
    adrayvenadrayven Posts: 460member
    Next week, Samsung will 'intentionally' let slip that they have won the contract.. just to keep their stock price from bottoming out even more... Then a few weeks later, TSMC will contradict it.. ... and so it will go for months..
    jbdragon
  • Reply 2 of 28
    waltfrenchwaltfrench Posts: 30member
    “While the current A9 SoC is an extremely capable processor, it might not be enough to support the dual rear-facing cameras…” Stitching together multiple images indeed can take a fair amount of CPU/GPU. But it needn't happen instantaneously, and very likely, specialized circuits will be involved, reducing the burden on the CPU. That processing might likely be well less than 1% of what users want to do, and not too time-critical (unless it's going to be used on videos), so something else will drive the next stage of processor speed. Applications/uses that might be more bottlenecked would be a denser screen that'd look better in a “Cardboard” or similar VR/AR use, more intensive games, possibly advanced video codecs. Not audio; not displaying video, both of which are handled easily today. Maybe faster browsing, a CPU (not esp GPU) job.
  • Reply 3 of 28
    tele1234tele1234 Posts: 76member
    adrayven said:
    just to keep their stock price from bottoming out even more... 
    ???

    The only part of Samsung 'bottoming out' is their heavy machinery manufacturing and petrochemical production divisions. What are you referring to?



    edited February 2016 cnocbui
  • Reply 4 of 28
    ksecksec Posts: 1,569member
    adrayven said:
    Next week, Samsung will 'intentionally' let slip that they have won the contract.. just to keep their stock price from bottoming out even more... Then a few weeks later, TSMC will contradict it.. ... and so it will go for months..
    The next A10 deal is done so it wont help with such rumors. 
  • Reply 5 of 28
    koopkoop Posts: 337member
    They already won the contract for the Snapdragon 820. Sounds to me like the capacity Apple left has already been filled.
    cnocbui
  • Reply 6 of 28
    tonestertonester Posts: 56member
    koop said:
    They already won the contract for the Snapdragon 820. Sounds to me like the capacity Apple left has already been filled.
    That's funny. All that capacity to make 820s for what?  The next big thing from Samsung that nobody is going to buy. 
    lolliverDan Andersenpoksilatifbpjbdragon
  • Reply 7 of 28
    tele1234tele1234 Posts: 76member
    tonester said:
    koop said:
    They already won the contract for the Snapdragon 820. Sounds to me like the capacity Apple left has already been filled.
    That's funny. All that capacity to make 820s for what?  The next big thing from Samsung that nobody is going to buy. 

    2.6% of Samsung Electronic's total marketshare is coming from Apple, and the vast majority of that is NAND and DRAM. Apple isn't going to cut those out, because they're leading the world in those technologies right now. They don't need to 'fill that capacity' at all.

    Snapdragons are used by Samsung phones (1st in global marketshare), Huawei (3rd), and Xiaomi (4th) - that's 40% of the smartphone market right there. I don't think that's 'nobody'.
    cnocbuijackansi
  • Reply 8 of 28
    Dan AndersenDan Andersen Posts: 5member
    tele1234 said:
    tonester said:
    That's funny. All that capacity to make 820s for what?  The next big thing from Samsung that nobody is going to buy. 

    2.6% of Samsung Electronic's total marketshare is coming from Apple
    Citation? Apple and Samsung are the world's largest buyers of semiconductors with Apple holding an 8.7% market share. If your number is correct, it implies that Apple is shunning Samsung as a semiconductor supplier…

    http://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-projected-to-be-the-worlds-biggest-chip-buyer-in-2016-Samsung-has-its-business-cut-for-it_id77967
  • Reply 9 of 28
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Was it the Samsung chips that were found to drain the battery faster?
    jackansi
  • Reply 10 of 28
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member

    tonester said:
    koop said:
    They already won the contract for the Snapdragon 820. Sounds to me like the capacity Apple left has already been filled.
    That's funny. All that capacity to make 820s for what?  The next big thing from Samsung that nobody is going to buy. 
    Android have 85% of world market share - so that's 'what'.  What you, I or anyone else thinks is irrelevant.  All Samsung have to do is make those processors and sell them for a profit.  It doesn't matter if Qualcom dump them in the sea so long as they abide by their contract and Pay Samsung for making them.
    jackansi
  • Reply 11 of 28
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    I hope they are installing a seismometer in the new HQ, linked to an alarm so they will know in real-time when to pick up the phone to Samsung.
  • Reply 12 of 28
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    cnocbui said:
    I hope they are installing a seismometer in the new HQ, linked to an alarm so they will know in real-time when to pick up the phone to Samsung.

    Wow.  How butt hurt can you get?


    williamlondonDan Andersenjackansibestkeptsecret
  • Reply 13 of 28
    irelandireland Posts: 17,799member
    I hope this is true. Samsung stand for nothing and so deserve as much.
  • Reply 14 of 28
    josujosu Posts: 217member
    cnocbui said:

    tonester said:
    That's funny. All that capacity to make 820s for what?  The next big thing from Samsung that nobody is going to buy. 
    Android have 85% of world market share - so that's 'what'.  What you, I or anyone else thinks is irrelevant.  All Samsung have to do is make those processors and sell them for a profit.  It doesn't matter if Qualcom dump them in the sea so long as they abide by their contract and Pay Samsung for making them.
    Yes, your rationale is good, but losing the contract of the most profitable smartphone manufacturer for other that sells to companies that barely make a dime in the smartphone market is not exactly a winner proposition long-term.
    brakkenDan Andersen
  • Reply 15 of 28
    ceek74ceek74 Posts: 324member
    Oh boy oh boy oh boy!  It's on!
  • Reply 16 of 28
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    josu said:
    cnocbui said:

    Android have 85% of world market share - so that's 'what'.  What you, I or anyone else thinks is irrelevant.  All Samsung have to do is make those processors and sell them for a profit.  It doesn't matter if Qualcom dump them in the sea so long as they abide by their contract and Pay Samsung for making them.
    Yes, your rationale is good, but losing the contract of the most profitable smartphone manufacturer for other that sells to companies that barely make a dime in the smartphone market is not exactly a winner proposition long-term.
    You don't appear to get it.  When you are making processors, it is completely irrelevant how much profit your customer makes.  What matters is your profit margin and the volume you have been asked to supply.  The Qualcom gig would likely be worth far more in profit to Samsung than making A series processors if Samsung is not constrained by capacity.  If they are restrained by capacity and it was fully utilised by either the Qualcom or Apple orders than they are sitting pretty because it doesn't matter who the contract is with as they are making the maximum profit they can either way.
    dasanman69jackansi
  • Reply 17 of 28
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    Rayz2016 said:
    cnocbui said:
    I hope they are installing a seismometer in the new HQ, linked to an alarm so they will know in real-time when to pick up the phone to Samsung.

    Wow.  How butt hurt can you get?


    How am I butt-hurt?  I don't have shares in either Samsung or Apple.  They are just faceless companies that make stuff as far as I am concerned.

    You are the one who's butt-hurt as you know I am right.  Taiwan has just suffered a serious earthquake, with 130 lives lost, unfortunately.  Fabs have had production runs lost and are having to re-calibrate equipment.  A larger quake nearer the fabs would have far more serious consequences with down-time measured in years.
    singularity
  • Reply 18 of 28
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    cnocbui said:
    How am I butt-hurt?  I don't have shares in either Samsung or Apple.  They are just faceless companies that make stuff as far as I am concerned.

    Yup, you keep telling yourself that.


    cnocbui said:
    You are the one who's butt-hurt as you know I am right.  Taiwan has just suffered a serious earthquake, with 130 lives lost, unfortunately.  Fabs have had production runs lost and are having to re-calibrate equipment.  A larger quake nearer the fabs would have far more serious consequences with down-time measured in years.
    Well, I'm not convinced the story is true. We hear something like this every year, and every year, Samsung picks up part of the contract. It's unlikely that TMSC on its own has the capacity to meet Apple's demands (and I don't think they will have for some time yet), so I fully expect Samsung to pick up some of the work again. Cook is not the kind of chap to hurt production and his customers just to score a point over Samsung.

    But gotta love the way you're gleefully rubbing your hands at the prospect of a major catastrophe so that Apple has to beg Samsung for help.  As I said: butt hurt.
    edited February 2016 williamlondonDan Andersenbestkeptsecret
  • Reply 19 of 28
    slprescottslprescott Posts: 765member
    Please stop the name calling on this forum. We're not in 3rd grade.
    jackansi
  • Reply 20 of 28
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    The earlier AI story said production was to begin this March. Will that be enough time to make it into DigiTimes's predicted new iPad Air with a 4K display,  which will be announced in March also?

    (Just fanning the flames a little.)
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