Apple Watch Uses Chip Manufactured on Samsung's 28-Nanometer Process

[bobob]

More likely Samsung will prioritize its phone chips on the 14nm process over watches, as phone sales are far more important. First priority is with the Galaxy S6, and I'm guessing the Apple A9 is right after that.

Fortunately that shouldn't put too much load on their chip factory.

 

[KPOM]

Fortunately that shouldn't put too much load on their chip factory.

I've heard that the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are selling well in other countries, though.

 

[Michael Goff]

Fortunately that shouldn't put too much load on their chip factory.

You do know that the S6 is selling well everywhere else, right?

 

[D-Dave]

A 28-nm chip possibly has lower leakage than the newer, smaller geometry processes, and thus might provide better battery life.

This seems plausible.

That is NOT plausible at all...leakage is what stops you from shrinking because it leads to errors, it has nothing to do with battery life.
What firewood could mean is idle power consumption, but that is considerably lower on 14nm chips then on 28nm...

 

[bobob]

I've heard that the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are selling well in other countries, though.

You do know that the S6 is selling well everywhere else, right?

I suppose that depends on how you define "selling well".

Is the S6 selling iPhone-well (ie: is it going to sell 135.64 million units in it's first two quarters)? Or is it selling Samsung-well (ie: an unknown number based on optimistic shipped units and pessimistic profits)?

 

[Mirplayer]

With Samsung at 14nm now... that is HALF the size of 28nm.... !

In diametre yes, but in mass it's 4x smaller.

Phone calls and cellular data with a 300 mah battery??
Are you joking??

Cellular power consumption has nothing to do with cpu.

There are other smartwatches with 600,650-700mAh already. Who knows what the nest Samsung Gear will have.

 

[KPOM]

In diametre yes, but in mass it's 4x smaller.


There are other smartwatches with 600,650-700mAh already. Who knows what the nest Samsung Gear will have.

That said, can the entire S1 be moved to a 14nm process, or just certain components that are custom designed by Apple? It looked like some of the components were "off-the-shelf." In any case, perhaps that lets Apple increase the battery size by 25-30%. I don't see them being able to cram a 600mAh battery given the size of the Apple Watch. More likely Apple would use the die shrinkage to make the Watch a bit thinner and more proportional.

 

[Mirplayer]

That said, can the entire S1 be moved to a 14nm process, or just certain components that are custom designed by Apple? It looked like some of the components were "off-the-shelf." In any case, perhaps that lets Apple increase the battery size by 25-30%. I don't see them being able to cram a 600mAh battery given the size of the Apple Watch. More likely Apple would use the die shrinkage to make the Watch a bit thinner and more proportional.

I don't know much about the S1, who's pop design is it, is it Apples? Apple don't design their own SoC or cores or really anything else a part form maybe this PoP??. I think they use off the shelf ARM 64bit archetecture, I think TSMC licence their fabrication from Intel, so they'll probably have to use another off the shelf SoC for 14nm, and Exynos will probably still remain leader of the pack for a while with their components and firmware.

 

[blackcrayon]

I don't know much about the S1, who's pop design is it, is it Apples? Apple don't design their own SoC or cores or really anything else a part form maybe this PoP??. I think they use off the shelf ARM 64bit archetecture, I think TSMC licence their fabrication from Intel, so they'll probably have to use another off the shelf SoC for 14nm, and Exynos will probably still remain leader of the pack for a while with their components and firmware.

Apple isn't using "off the shelf" SoCs, they are custom Apple designs with ARM's ISA. Notice Apple's chips in the past few years have had very different performance profiles, core designs, and clock speeds than their contemporary competitors (some of which were "off the shelf" ARM designs).

 

[Mirplayer]

Apple isn't using "off the shelf" SoCs, they are custom Apple designs with ARM's ISA. Notice Apple's chips in the past few years have had very different performance profiles, core designs, and clock speeds than their contemporary competitors (some of which were "off the shelf" ARM designs).

I never knew Apple designed their own soc. I knew they used Samsungs designs till 4s, or I don't know the first deal they both done. Although Apple is reportedly going to be using Samsungs SoC design once again with the A9, allegedly.

 

[blackcrayon]

I never knew Apple designed their own soc. I knew they used Samsungs designs till 4s, or I don't know the first deal they both done. Although Apple is reportedly going to be using Samsungs SoC design once again with the A9, allegedly.

I think the A4 (iPhone 4) was the last design associated with Samsung (it was a Samsung and Intrinsity collaboration, and of course Intrinsity is now part of Apple).

Where did you read that the A9 would be a Samsung design? That doesn't make much sense unless Apple is going to completely abandon their progress up to the A8X, which is a great chip. Samsung might be fabricating most or all of the A9 chips, but I'd be pretty surprised if they would be designing it.

 

[KPOM]

I don't know much about the S1, who's pop design is it, is it Apples? Apple don't design their own SoC or cores or really anything else a part form maybe this PoP??. I think they use off the shelf ARM 64bit archetecture, I think TSMC licence their fabrication from Intel, so they'll probably have to use another off the shelf SoC for 14nm, and Exynos will probably still remain leader of the pack for a while with their components and firmware.

Apple uses their own designs for the AArch64 architecture (hence they use 2 or 3 equal cores). I don't know about the S1, which appears in other respects to be similar to the 32-bit A5 chip used in the iPad 2 and iPhone 5 (both were 28nm designs and used the same GPU as the S1).

Exynos is actually a stock ARM design (the dual-quad-core big.LITTLE arrangement). There's no indication that it is the basis for any watch out there, as it is complete overkill right now.

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I think the A4 (iPhone 4) was the last design associated with Samsung (it was a Samsung and Intrinsity collaboration, and of course Intrinsity is now part of Apple).

Where did you read that the A9 would be a Samsung design? That doesn't make much sense unless Apple is going to completely abandon their progress up to the A8X, which is a great chip. Samsung might be fabricating most or all of the A9 chips, but I'd be pretty surprised if they would be designing it.

There is no way Samsung is designing the A9. It's all Apple. Samsung is likely fabbing it on their 14nm process. Samsung is using a stock ARM design right now, but is looking to use a custom design like Apple in their next generation.