Samsung is said to be considering spinning off its chipmaking division in response to losing Apple’s A-Series chip business.
Apple’s A-series chip orders for iPhones and iPads used to be split between Samsung and TSMC, but Apple dropped Samsung for the A10 chip in the iPhone 7 and is reported to be doing the same for the A11 chip in next year’s iPhone …
A report from Korea’s ETnews claims that Apple will be applying Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) shielding to a number of individual chips in the iPhone 7, to reduce electromagnetic interference. This would be a step up from Apple’s current approach of applying shielding to the circuit board as a whole, though it did apply shielding to the S1 chip used in the Apple Watch.
“As clock signals of digital chips have increased and as diverse functions such as 3D-touch and others have recently added, reduction of electromagnetic waves have emerged as major topic of this industry.” said a representative of this industry.
While unattributed, the report appears to originate from one of the Korean companies said to be in line to carry out the shielding work, StatsChipPac and Amkor. Given that the piece talks-up prospects for companies involved in the business, we’re chalking it up as an unverified claim.
Taiwan’s TSMC is said to be in line to be the sole supplier of A10 chips for the iPhone 7, while a report today claims that Wistron will be added to Apple’s existing assembler roster of Foxconn and Pegatron.
Via Patently Apple
Apple chipmaker TSMC said that the earthquake that hit southern Taiwan earlier this month caused damage that will impact production, but has not yet given a clear indication of the scale of the problem. The company is one of two chip fabricators for the iPhone 6s, and is expected to be the sole manufacturer of the A10 chip for the iPhone 7.
The 6.4-magnitude earthquake on February 6 killed 116 people and injured many more, with significant damage also caused to manufacturing facilities …
According to a report from South Korean news outlet The Electronic Times, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, better known as TSMC, has reached a deal with Apple to be the sole provider of the processor used in the next-generation iPhone. TSMC and Samsung shared the task of building the processors for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.
A trio of new rumors from a handful of Asian sources have popped up over the holiday and today, each predicting a different facet of the upcoming ‘iPhone 6S‘. While these are still just very unverified whispers at the moment, odds are that at least one of these will end up coming at least partially true.
Here’s a roundup of the latest iPhone rumors, in no particular order:
The WSJ is suggesting that Apple’s growing presence in Israel is focused on expanding the company’s chip design capabilities, reporting that it has hired most of the local employees of a chip design company shut down by Texas Instruments and is advertising new positions in silicon and semiconductor design.
“Apple’s Israeli acquisitions and its expanding local workforce show that the company is becoming more and more independent on the chip level, where it once had to rely on external suppliers,” said Shlomo Gradman, chairman of the Israeli Semiconductor Club.
While the report contains more speculation than hard fact, we noted yesterday that Tim Cook–who is currently visiting the country–is accompanied by Johny Srouji, whose bio on the Apple website says that he “leads all custom silicon architecture and development” …
Is an A-series chip destined for a future model of the 12-inch MacBook Air?
A KGI report predicts that Apple will begin using its own processors for Macs “in the next 1-2 years,” with a specific prediction of a Samsung-fabbed A10X chip powering at least one Mac made in 2016. The wording appears to suggest an entry-level machine–possibly a future model of the 12-inch MacBook Air.
Apple may launch Mac products that use own AP [Application Processor] in next 1-2 years. This prediction is based on the assumption that Apple’s self-developed AP performs at a level between Intel’s Atom and Core i3 and is good enough for Mac. Using self developed AP can help Apple better control the timing of Mac launches and Mac product features.
With performance between an Atom and Core i3, the chip would not be suitable for mid- to high-end Macs.
An accompanying table (below) shows an A10X chip made with a 10-nanometer process to be made by Samsung at some point during 2016 …
This is what happens when designers have to look down at the same box they had almost a decade ago.
We showed you a detailed modular Mac Pro design concept in September posted by designer Peter Zigich. Today, Zigich is back with another future Mac Pro concept that imagined Apple ditching Intel for a custom Apple-designed ARM CPU, “A10”. We’re not sure Apple is ready to take the jump to ARM in the first major refresh of its Mac Pro line since 2010, but the prospect of a smaller, possibly Mac mini-like design for a new Mac Pro is definitely intriguing. The PCI slots are probably not necessary thanks to Thunderbolt, and Zigich doesn’t rule Intel out entirely. While these specs are maybe not completely realistic for an upcoming Mac Pro refresh, it certainly gets us thinking about what Apple might have planned for its aging Mac Pro design. More images available on Zigich’s website here.