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 …
TSMC initially said that it expected 95% of production capacity to be restored within 2-3 days, and that the long-term impact would be a loss of around 1% of 2016 production. However, Digitimes now reports the company says that damage to one of the chip-fabrication facilities is “worse than originally assessed.”
The company has, however, indicated that it is “confident” of hitting its revenue targets for the first quarter of the year, suggesting that it still expects the impact to be relatively minor.
It had been speculated that Apple’s reported decision to switch from a TSMC/Samsung mix for the A9 chip to TSMC only for the A10 may have been influenced by benchmark tests showing that iPhone 6s models equipped with the TSMC chip ran cooler and offered better battery life than Samsung variants. Apple played down the differences, saying that benchtests are not typical of real-world usage, and that the difference amounted to 2-3%.
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The A10x is supposed to be manufactured solely by Samsung like the A9x was made by TSMC.
The only reports that I have seen claiming that 100% of A10 production would be from Samsung were based on vague rumours originating in Korea. Every year we get the same claims from anonymous Korean sources saying that Samsung is about to be contracted to produce 100% of the production of Apple’s next generation CPU, but the reality turns out to be otherwise.
This is a typical report about the A9 chips, there were many more similar reports …
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-03/samsung-said-to-win-apple-a9-chip-orders-for-next-iphone
The reports claimed that Samsung would be the sole manufacturer, but in reality the chips are being dual sourced from TSMC and Samsung.
Actually, the A10/A10X is supposed to be mfg by TSMC. The A9/A9X has both suppliers, at least that’s how the A9 is made, they have both companies making them. From what I read the TSMC A9’s were slightly better, not by a huge margin, but just slightly better.
The earthquake demonstrates exactly why it’s prudent to continue dual sourcing of critical components. I excepted Apple to continue dual sourcing the A10, just as they did the A9. However my ideal option would be dual sourcing using TSMC and somebody other than Samsung.
Taiwan is situated in an area where earthquakes are commonplace. While it’s possible to design buildings that are resistant to earthquakes, that protection can only go so far. A really bad earthquake could devastate a chip foundry and it would take far too long to rebuild it and get production up to speed again. Taiwan has had twenty significant earthquakes in the last twenty years and since 1900, Taiwan has had three earthquakes that have each killed more than a thousand people.
Dual sourcing not only protects Apple from the worst effects of earthquakes, but also from political instability, transport disruption, wars and other unpredictable events.
When you’re dealing with clean-rooms the earthquake doesn’t even need to be severe. Clean Rooms are very delicate and small disruptions, even losing power for a few hours, can require extensive clean up. then they have to restart the fab process.
The Samsung chips for Apple aren’t made in Asia, they are made in the US. I think TSMC might have to build mfg in the US in areas that aren’t affected by earthquakes and other major disasters.
I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until we see production moving to third-world countries like India / Pakistan. It seems to be the way of reducing cost, by using a lower priced work force.
Chip fabs don’t follow this model, especially those on the cutting edge. Think of where Apple’s chips are made now – Taiwan, South Korea, Austin, TX – opposite of the developing world.
Everything around Austin still seems to be developing. Or devolving.
I didn’t know Samsung could generate earthquakes. Huh.
Did anyone see the show on HBO called Vinyl? Kind of reminds me of a segment in the show were a building collapsed with a crowd of people inside watching a rock band play. Unfortunate, but things happen beyond control.