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TSMC Expected to Remain Exclusive Supplier of 'A13' Chip Orders for 2019 iPhones

Sevanw said:
Seriously, try to read articles that aren't only quoted on an Apple site. TSMC went for being first with older tech and an inferior process over a superior process. This isn't opinion, it's a fact in the industry.

You say, "Some people just don't read... Sigh"

My sentiments exactly. Try to venture beyond the Apple bubble to get your news in the industry.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/samsung-unveils-7nm-technology-with-euv/
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Nothing there contradicts TSMC being ahead with 7nm and 5nm. As for
"try to read articles that aren't only quoted on an Apple site.". That's gibberish and irrelevant. Digitimes a) aren't only quoted on an Apple site and b) are completely independent of Apple or anyone else. Samsung are playing catchup with poor yield at 7nm, UEV or no UEV. Digitimes are a far more reliable source on the topic of silicon than ZDNET. What will you quote next, Business Insider? The Onion maybe?

I swear if I ever get stranded like the guy in that movie 127 hours I won't bother chopping my arm off. I'll just quietly whisper something that might imply Samsung might not be leaders in everything all the time and you'll be instantly summoned.
 
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keysofanxiety said:
Oooft, 7nm chips. I'm so happy I was born in the generation I was. It's been brilliant to see the evolution of technology.
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I was in high school in the mid 1970's and basically got to see the whole industry develop from the S100 system on up. I never could afford such machines so my computing life revolved around Byte magazine for a long time. Finally scraped up enough cash for a Vic 20 as my first computer.

Man how have things changed!!!! Today i can buy a cell phone with more computing power than most of the machines ive ever owned. The bug hit me hard for awhile and with a job in hand, a lot of cash went out the window for computing hardware (8085, 80186, lots of Intel infact, 68k, Power PC ) basically all sorts of hardware but no Apple 2.

So yeah pretty impressive, the industry has been amazing. Frankly i see the industry making another major turn with a focus on AI related technologies in hardware. So we are back to the days when the Z80, the 6502 and other processors battled for the future of computing. This time though it will be a battle over hardware supporting AI techniques. Fun times for another generation.
 
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69Mustang said:
The tech is mind blowing. But...


Does 7nm actually mean 7nm? Afaik most chip architecture numbers are more sizzle than steak. Using the actual die size doesn't negate the accomplishments, but marketing I guess.
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You are absolutely right. That's exactly the case.

WoodpeckerBaby said:
As an Electrical Engineering student, I can tell you that 7 nm chipset lithography means all the tiny circuits and wires are 7 nm thin. That's 7 x 10^-9 meters.
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You are unfortunately wrong, and 69Mustang was correct. The technology node no longer means that the gate size or other feature sizes are that small. That's just what they teach in schools. It used to be true a few node generations ago but is no longer true.

For example when companies moved from 22nm or 20nm planar technology to Finfet technology with the same gate sizes they started calling them 16nm or 14nm nodes, even though gate feature sizes had not shrunk at all. It was just a different gate design (albeit one that was very cumbersome to manufacture). The idea was that the electrical performance would be on par with a theoretical planar 16nm/14nm gate.

Calling it a lower tech node was just for marketing purposes, to differentiate it from the previous technology. The same treatment continues. Actually, it had already begun even in planar nodes. It was quite a while ago that the node designation actually meant the size of gate width. Now the node size designation is used for marketing and product differentiation.
 
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Given all the power these iPhones can incorporate today and how they’re more powerful than a computer was 10 years ago, that’s what’s impressive to me. And most consumers that use their iPhones on a daily basis, will never even take full advantage of the processing power these iPhones can output, but still amazing tech in such a thin device.
 
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MacRumors said:
Samsung isn't backing down easily, however, as DigiTimes last month reported that the South Korean company is developing its own InFO packaging technology. Samsung claims to have outpaced TSMC in kicking off official production of 7nm+ with EUV, seeking to win back orders from Apple in 2019.
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Yeah Samsung 7nm EUV process is better than TSMC's first gen 7nm.
They will be fine, Samsung won ARM Cortex A76 designs which are actually intended to compete with Intel in the ultra-thin laptop space and probably in the server space.

https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_an...76_processors_running_at_3_ghz-news-32079.php
 
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How is $TSM stock not doing better than it is? Seems like news like this should boost it but it is underperming other chip makers.
 
Feenician said:
Nothing there contradicts TSMC being ahead with 7nm and 5nm. As for
"try to read articles that aren't only quoted on an Apple site.". That's gibberish and irrelevant. Digitimes a) aren't only quoted on an Apple site and b) are completely independent of Apple or anyone else. Samsung are playing catchup with poor yield at 7nm, UEV or no UEV. Digitimes are a far more reliable source on the topic of silicon than ZDNET. What will you quote next, Business Insider? The Onion maybe?

I swear if I ever get stranded like the guy in that movie 127 hours I won't bother chopping my arm off. I'll just quietly whisper something that might imply Samsung might not be leaders in everything all the time and you'll be instantly summoned.
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Rival TSMC, the world's largest contract chipmaker, has chosen a different strategy, sacrificing some shrink to get 7nm to market faster using current lithography tools.
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A head start for Samsung with 7nm EUV also means a head start with 5nm.
Samsung is not playing catch up they simple adopted a more ambitious road-map.
Samsung's 7nm EUV has a 6-8 months head start on TSMC's 7nm EUV.
 
Why didn’t Apple fabricate their own chips? Why rely on third party manufacturers if you already design your own chips?
 
I wish Apple would just do only one supplier for all the components in their phones. It sucks having to play roulette and getting the inferior device.
 
ROGmaster said:
A head start for Samsung with 7nm EUV also means a head start with 5nm.
Samsung is not playing catch up they simple adopted a more ambitious road-map.
Samsung's 7nm EUV has a 6-8 months head start on TSMC's 7nm EUV.
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Except, as noted in the digitimes article (now sadly behind a paywall) Samsung are having yield issues with EUV. A "more ambitious road-map" doesn't mean much because Apple can't ship road-maps in their phone (there's an Apple Maps joke there for the unambitious). A theoretical future advantage is a) useless today and b) just that, theoretical.
 
Lol at the Android/Samsung nerds. Even at 10nm the A12 destroys any mobil processor on android. And it'll only get faster from here on out.
 
Feenician said:
Except, as noted in the digitimes article (now sadly behind a paywall) Samsung are having yield issues with EUV. A "more ambitious road-map" doesn't mean much because Apple can't ship road-maps in their phone (there's an Apple Maps joke there for the unambitious). A theoretical future advantage is a) useless today and b) just that, theoretical.
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That's just speculation. Samsung firmly confirmed that their 7nm EUV is on track and they aren't facing any delays. Also EUV should improve yields and make 5nm possible. Nobody said anything about Apple here, the discussion is about TSMC and Samsung Semiconductor.
Also the advantages of 7nm EUV vs TSMC's 7nm are not theoretical.
 
Woodcrest64 said:
I don't think you will see the bigger improvements regarding the camera until 2019 which is rumoured to be when Apple releases a triple rear camera system. This year will focus on the new screen size offerings. The triple lens setup should allow for much better low light performance if one camera/sensor offers black and white.

The question is whether Apple keeps this Triple camera system exclusively to the larger Plus size or not.
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Looks pretty bleak. The cameras are already really good, but I want even better :D. Monochrome should be sweet though. I'd assume it will be + only and then trickle down from there, like previous.
 
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