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Samsung to Produce A9 Chips for Apple's Next-Generation Devices
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And so far, there have been little to no comments of the sort. I always find posts like this to be very oddball. This is an Apple enthusiasts board. It's to be expected, and no doubt Apple gets tons of hatred from the Samsung enthusiasts boards. You sound like you're a Samsung supporter saying this.
Apple always using the latest greatest manufacturing technology, which is honestly always so great to see year in and year out. being on the very best manufacturing node is nothing but great news in terms of both performance and battery life gains every year that passes by. Samsung and Apple will really be on 14nm this year while majority of competition will still be on 20nm
The 6Plus and iPad Air have fantastic battery life and better than many products in the same category.
Maybe! However I suspect that Apple have plans for all that processing power. In the end they will implement the hardware such that they can wring about the same amount of run time out of the phone. That means balancing battery size and processor performance to fit into what ever the selected case dimensions are.
In a nut shell I think Apple has good reason to want far better performance out of A9. The rapid increase in processor performance has allowed them to refactor IOS into something that is a bit different internally than even a couple of years ago. More processor power means more big system concepts get moved into the phone.
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You are thinking 1980's here. I could see Apple shaking up the industry by adding neural network electronics or other alternatives, to the chip instead of more cores. That could allow voice recognition and processing right on the phone. 2015 might be a little early for that but I can see it happening.
The other thing that is interesting is Apples Tri core approach, maybe they jump to six cores in some designs.
I'm all for the CPU / SOC using less power, but to see real gains, the display has to use more juice or batteries need to get more dense (or they can stop making the phones thinner).
Considering that TSMC right now is still producing record level of A8 (75M+ for Q2 quarter), maybe it wouldn't have the capacity to ramp up the A9 while still producing the A8. Maybe that's the reason Apple wants to alternate with Samsung.
Guaranteed it will be thinner, lighter, and faster than the current gen.
I'll quote this in 7 months when the iPhone 6S is announced and not thinner or lighter
But I'm hoping for faster. The 5S is 2x as fast as the 5C. The iPhone 6 is 25% faster still. My upgrade from a 5C to a 6S will be incredible!
And so far, there have been little to no comments of the sort. I always find posts like this to be very oddball. This is an Apple enthusiasts board. It's to be expected, and no doubt Apple gets tons of hatred from the Samsung enthusiasts boards. You sound like you're a Samsung supporter saying this.
Except Apple users used to be held to a higher standard of intelligence. That apparently has slipped significantly over the past decade.
Stories like this serve to remind all those idiots that post "Samsung sucks" and "Samsung just steal from Apple" whenever Samsung announce a new phone, that Samsung is actually a massive collection of engineering and technology divisions with areas of expertise that Apple cannot match. Hard to criticize a story reminding users that it's components are integral to Apple on many levels.
Maybe you need reminding as well. You can actually respect what Samsung manufacture without being labelled a pariah "Samsung Supporter" and also like Apple products too.
Shocking concept I know.
Actually there is a limit to how small the chip can become. That has to do with the space required for bond out around the perimeter. It all ready looks like they are tight in this regard.
What does that mean? Room for twice as much stuff!! That means room for bigger GPUs, bigger caches, more cores or new stuff. New stuff could mean the RF processing hardware currently sitting on other chips.
It could end up being a lot more powerful.
That is possible.
It is interesting that it hasn't been reported yet by the Apple press but ARM ANNOUNCED NEW 64 bit ARM IP yesterday. This is a much faster and lower power 64 bit Arm core. 14nm seems to be an ideal node.
I'm still waiting on an iPhone 4 sized phone with this sort of electronics built in.
I don't think Samsung understands how Apple does it.
These are also being run at their Austin TX, and GF's Malta, NY Fabs.
There are some Americans working in them.
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Nope.
The "ongoing legal battles" would likely figure in as a relatively small part of the reason why Apple would seek chip suppliers other than Samsung. The much larger one, logically, is that they are fierce competitors.
For better battery life they need a better battery technology.
There fixed that for you.
Agreed.
When I had my iPhone 5, I would constantly be trying to find outlets or setup my rMBP to plug in and charge.
I always keep a lightning cable in backpack, then use my Twelve South HiRise stand when I get home. My backpack cable has gone unused sitting in my backpack for months. I can't even try to use the all the battery in my 6 Plus in a day. I'm a heavy user and still have on average 55-57% by the end of the day, 33-36% at worst.
no more thinner or lighter.
I would rather it be thicker and heavier so it can fit a bigger battery.
oh... no more bending phones
I would rather it be thicker and heavier so it can fit a bigger battery.
oh... no more bending phones
This is a rumor site in case you didn't know.
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That's exactly why I use a Mophie.
Not in Intigrated Circuit Design. Apple's A Series are designed In House at their Orlando, FL design Center.
Samsung, and TSMC Fab the Integrated Circuit Designed by Apple based on ARM. Global foundries uses Samsung's 14nm Process overseen by Samsung. TSMC can't cut it at 14nm at this point.
Samsung simply can't copy the Apple design. It's not in the same realm as swipes, pinches, and zooms. Or, exterior design.
Just like Chevrolet could not simply copy the wonderful 8 speed ZF AT in the 2015 Z06 and call it a THM800R5.
Samsung is a HUGE Co. Samsung Mobile was always the object of SJ's Thermo Nuclear Temper. Not their Fabs.
The A9 will be "Magical".
There has been a process node jump in the last 5 iPhones, assuming that the iPhone 6S is 14nm or 16nm. Considering that typical node cadence is 2 years, that shows how lucky the industry has been. That well is going to dry up soon, though. Silicon only has about 3 more shrinks in it (down to ~4nm).
I'll believe supplier node diversification when a teardown proves it.
I'll believe supplier node diversification when a teardown proves it.