Apple By Matthew Humphries Jul. 1, 2014 3:30 pm
This year Apple’s focus will be on the release of the iPhone 6, widely expected to become available in September. But with a new phone being released every 12 months, the company has to look ahead to what follows, and next year that will be the iPhone 7. Now we’re hearing which companies have secured initial orders for the A9 chip that will be at the heart of the 2015 iPhone.
The big winners are Globalfoundries and Apple’s old rival Samsung. It seems that, love or hate them, Apple can’t do without the manufacturing capacity and expertise of the South Korean company. In this case, Samsung will produce 40 percent of the required 14nm A9 FinFET processors the iPhone 7 will use. Those processors will be manufactured at Globafoundries’ Fab 8 facility located in New York, which Samsung has access to. That equates to an initial output of 60,000 wafers a month, producing enough chips to support the launch around September 2015.
It’s important to stress that these are just initial orders being reported and Apple has other manufacturers vying for a contract. One of those is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) — someone Apple has worked with many times before. However, Intel is also thought to be open to production discussions.
Whoever ends up winning orders from Apple, the relentless iPhone release schedule will not be disrupted unless Apple hits a major hurdle with a new piece of tech. If Globalfoundries, Samsung, TSMC, and Intel all end up being required to meet demand, then Apple will place orders with all of them.
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The big winners are Globalfoundries and Apple’s old rival Samsung. It seems that, love or hate them, Apple can’t do without the manufacturing capacity and expertise of the South Korean company. In this case, Samsung will produce 40 percent of the required 14nm A9 FinFET processors the iPhone 7 will use. Those processors will be manufactured at Globafoundries’ Fab 8 facility located in New York, which Samsung has access to. That equates to an initial output of 60,000 wafers a month, producing enough chips to support the launch around September 2015.
It’s important to stress that these are just initial orders being reported and Apple has other manufacturers vying for a contract. One of those is Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) — someone Apple has worked with many times before. However, Intel is also thought to be open to production discussions.
Whoever ends up winning orders from Apple, the relentless iPhone release schedule will not be disrupted unless Apple hits a major hurdle with a new piece of tech. If Globalfoundries, Samsung, TSMC, and Intel all end up being required to meet demand, then Apple will place orders with all of them.
More...
