Apple is a big chunk of the total market. When your best customer walks away and gives his money to the competition, it is never a happy day.
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TSMC Begins Trial Manufacturing of Apple A6 Processors
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Apple is a big chunk of the total market. When your best customer walks away and gives his money to the competition, it is never a happy day.
Well yeah I that's why added demand. After all the existing uses are serviced already. So they need to find un-serviced demand or demand they can switch. It wouldn't even need be ARM SoC that fill the hole....but if it's not something already made on that fab there is going to be a start period right?
depends, I would not exactly call Apple the best customer. From what I have been reading and Apple history seems to be gaining the reputation to chew up and spit out supplier. Not exactly the best reputation to earn ones self. You can sort of get away with it when you are top dog but when you fall from that perch it can and often times ugly because no one wants to work with you because of the reputation.
Now when could be 15-20 years from now but one thing is for sure Apple will be knock down from it. The top dog is always at some point kick off it is just a question of when. It would not be the first time nor the last time it happens to Apple.
If there was another $8bn per annum customer Samsung could sell to, they'd be selling to them now.
As has been said, Samsung have some very expensive factories about to go very quiet.
A loss of $8bn could easily turn into a $2bn per annum loss with fabs empty.
Yeah, just imagine how many wii-u controllers Nintendo will be needing. A bit more than iphones, ipads and ipods combined.
Yeah, just imagine how many wii-u controllers Nintendo will be needing. A bit more than iphones, ipads and ipods combined.
The idea for that controller/device looks cool! Thanks for the info, I didn't know..
Anyways, I would like to know what part of business is supplying parts and what part is end-market products for Samsung... Anyone has the info?
The question is if TSMC is big enough and experienced enough to handle the same large quantities that Samsung is and has been handling.
If not, things could get ugly when demand for the next iSomething is high, and there's nothing in stock.
If not, things could get ugly when demand for the next iSomething is high, and there's nothing in stock.
You are always joking around. Stop it or someone might think you are being serious one of these times!
Or, can TSMC's suppliers get them product fast enough? All I care about is TSMC'S getting the business, because I have several friends who stand to gain from increased business at TSMC. (including myself)
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i heard that tsmc yield is not their strong points , i think samsung beat them on yield. So i guess the judge is not out whether A6 will be tsmc after all.
if apple want yield that much, why not go to the japanese company to source for IC. OK, maybe only tsmc have the massive capacity for such a large customer. I wonder if it is a good idea for a phone to have so much heat and processing power, what are we going to do with so much processing power. the moon lander have much less processing power, why so much for consumer? the battery last only 1 day now, increasing processing power does not help anyone. i am starting to think iphone 5 is not worth waiting for.
if apple want yield that much, why not go to the japanese company to source for IC. OK, maybe only tsmc have the massive capacity for such a large customer. I wonder if it is a good idea for a phone to have so much heat and processing power, what are we going to do with so much processing power. the moon lander have much less processing power, why so much for consumer? the battery last only 1 day now, increasing processing power does not help anyone. i am starting to think iphone 5 is not worth waiting for.
oh IMFLASH and MICRON will not be happy to hear this. That is true, that means that memory price will fall. muhahaha ha. Time to put 128GB in my DSLR which i never will uses.
Has anyone paused to consider that Apple might be planning on using both TSMC and Samsung, because they need so many chips, and to diversify risk?
Oooh, I like the way you think. I just hope it doesn't take 14 months to come out with white iSocks.
That's what I was thinking. Strategically it makes sense for Apple to be able to source the same parts from two companies.
I'm not sure more cores would necessarily be a battery eater. Plus there's new battery tech that will last way longer than today's batteries. Here's hoping for the best.
Eventually I expect they will supplement the battery inside with photovoltaic cells. When the phone is exposed to light , why not use it for energy?
Anybody in manufacturing knows that this is the real reason.
This is all based on long term planning. It is not possible to replace products by just switching from supplier A to B. Alos, it is not desirable to put all the eggs into one basket.
TMSC will have initial production issues to iron out, so jeopardizing all their products with only using TMSC chips would be suicide.
There will be a gradual phase in and parallel development of the next gen chips.
The lawsuit has nothing to do with using TMSC.
People in Apple purchasing may have been told to look for alternatives because of this, but they still have to go by what is available in sourcing, quality of parts and price and base their decisions on the best they can find.
Once Samsung and Apple settle their case(s) it will be business as usual, plus TMSC.
No. Samsung has done a tape out of 20nm chip. They are at least 2-3years from commercial chips.
It was reported almost 3 weeks ago that Apple got back test wafers from TSMC
on the site SemiAccurate.
Test wafers is a complete different thing than full scale production.
TSMC revenue will be 3% 28 nanometer last quarter this year. This is from manufacturing mostly AMD 7 series graphic and Nvidia 6 series graphic. Nvidia/AMD has booked wafers years back. It is hard to see Apple just waltzing in and take wafers from other companies.
If TSMC is going to mass produce Apple chips soon, it won't be an 28nm A6. That won't be ready until next year.
We could see an A5+ on 40nm. Higher clock speeds and PowerVR 6 graphics. PowerVR6 was tape out six month ago, so it is perfectly times. PowerVR6 series graphic can drive a Retina 10inch display.
on the site SemiAccurate.
Test wafers is a complete different thing than full scale production.
TSMC revenue will be 3% 28 nanometer last quarter this year. This is from manufacturing mostly AMD 7 series graphic and Nvidia 6 series graphic. Nvidia/AMD has booked wafers years back. It is hard to see Apple just waltzing in and take wafers from other companies.
If TSMC is going to mass produce Apple chips soon, it won't be an 28nm A6. That won't be ready until next year.
We could see an A5+ on 40nm. Higher clock speeds and PowerVR 6 graphics. PowerVR6 was tape out six month ago, so it is perfectly times. PowerVR6 series graphic can drive a Retina 10inch display.
may be a smart move
As you know, Apple hardballs and plays tough and at the same time try to work with what they already have to make it work on their terms.
As you know, Apple hardballs and plays tough and at the same time try to work with what they already have to make it work on their terms.
Not that Apple wouldn't always have to source additional capacity but I wonder if Apple might not be wise to own their own fabrication facility at some point. It would be nice if it were in America too.
Makes a lot of sense for multiple reasons
1) If there's a problem at one fab, you don't have to grind product shipments to a halt.
2) More capacity for launches
3) Playing them against each other for price.
As for Samsung as a competitor, Apple wouldn't have products if they didn't deal with frenemies. You have basically two suppliers for LCD screens: LG and Samsung. Both competitors in several markets. If you stop doing business with one, prices go up because the other has all the leverage. Stop doing business with both, you can't physically make an iPhone.
Hell no. That would be terrible. Apple are great cause they make a few things really well. If they made everything they'd just become a jack of all trades and master of none. And as much as Apple is it's own competition, it still needs the others to push it from time to time to make better products.
