Yeah, right up there with "This is the most powerful iPhone yet".
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Mass Production of A15 Chip for iPhone 13 Set to Begin Ahead of Schedule in Late May
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I expect that you are correct. However, I wonder how close the industry is getting towards the point of diminishing return. As in do we just hit a wall at some point in terms of performance in that size package?
I get the new iPhone every year just because the trade in value of the old phone is still high even when the differences aren’t great. Bought a 12 Pro when I didn’t really need it even though the visual changes were nice. If this phone has Touch ID, a 120hz display and a smaller notch, I don’t see how they could top the phone the year after without getting rid of the notch completely. Will be getting a 13 pro max.
No, it’s been planned this way month ago... tarting early just means that someone would be keeping/increasing inventory and that doesn’t happen with Apple
Sure it has, and "WE" just found out now.
Sometimes in January Tim "Supply-Chain" Cook got a call from TSMC "Hey Timmy, we finished testing the enhanced 5mm and if you want we can switch some production lines earlier than planned".
This would be the result and it would also explain why the rumored M1X Macs didn't get released or at least announced yet.
When I grow up I want to be like TSMC. This company is crazy.
A and M series chips are not “based on” each other. They use the same core microarchitecture, but neither is the basis for the other, though one or the other may tape out first. They also use different physical designs, netlists, etc. In SoC design, you design a core for use in multiple chips, you don’t design a chip and then say “let’s make a different chip based on that chip.”
There is no way that Apple would ever be that casual about their best selling flagship product. Everything about the next iPhone has been meticulously planned for years.
Remember when everyone was up in arms over how their iPhone 6s’ SoC was manufactured by TSMC and not Samsung? Man times have changed.
The chip shortage was mostly because companies like auto manufacturers CANCELLED their chip orders because of the pandemic. Chip companies then focused on all the new demand for computers. But companies like Apple pay far in advance to guarantee to have components in production without hiccup. The shortage is mostly from companies that did not place the orders ahead of time and could not have foreseen the added demand.
And conversely, sometimes Apple has had to pay penalties to companies like Samsung when it did not meet order requirements for the guaranteed capacity.
And conversely, sometimes Apple has had to pay penalties to companies like Samsung when it did not meet order requirements for the guaranteed capacity.
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More accurately, the entire industry is in disarray because Apple (and other very large OEMs) contractually secured their supply years ago and is now getting enough supply at the expense of individual buyers and low volume OEMs. Chip makers are losing sales anyways because they can’t keep up with demand, but they might as well keep Apple happy since they pay the big bucks.
When Intel was asleep at the wheel. The new Intel processors this year runs hotter with little performance gains to show for it.
60-80 days of cycle time to turn a silicon wafer into a platter full of computer chips.
at least another 30 days to test that platter and then into little black packages you recognize as actual computer chips, and test some more.
Now someone has to take that little black thing and put it on a circuit board and put THAT into a phone.
And all of that is overlooking other manufacturing realities (like an ice storm in Texas).
You can't plan cutting edge tech years in advance and expect it to just work out. There will be delays, there will changes in markets, there will SNAFUs like the pandemic and every once in a while there will be lucky breaks.
Depending on how early you get wind of these you will want to change course and adapt, and that is the question here how early did Apple knew and what opportunities did they see in it?
For all we know it might be as simple as increasing the launch stock for the iPhones expecting high demands, maybe move launch day a week ahead or fasttrack other products.
The idea that Apple (with Tim Cook as CEO) would just ignore the possibilities to avoid having to change some plans doesn't sound very plausible to me.
Exactly. Stating the same thing every year, and every year everyone continue to ask and state the same thing.
Sure do. Our oldest is a Process Engineer with a Big Box Company. He saw this coming after the A7 processor.
He feels TSMC is 2 years ahead of Samsung at a minimum.