Qualcomm gearing up to produce 4G LTE chips for Apple's next iPhone

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Chipmakers are preparing for production of Apple's sixth-generation iPhone, including Qualcomm, which is said to be providing high-speed 4G long-term evolution chips produced using a 28-nanometer process.

Qualcomm is expected to build its 4G LTE chips at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, supply chain sources shared with DigiTimes. Qualcomm will need about 10,000 28-nanometer 12-inch wafers, representing one-third of the 28-nanometer capacity at TSMC, just to produce 4G chips for the next iPhone, the report said.

Also relying on TSMC's 28-nanometer process for the next iPhone will be Broadcom, which is expected to provide Wi-Fi chips to Apple. And OmniVision is also said to be looking to get in on TSMC's 12-inch fabrication process.

The report noted that TSMC's "tight production capacity" for its 28-nanometer process will also have customers Nvidia, Texas Instruments, Altera, Xilinx and others. It's expected that it will be difficult for TSMC to meet market demand for the 28-nanometer process until it can produce 50,000 units a month around the fourth quarter of 2012.

With supply constraints in mind, STMicroelectronics is said to be ramping up output of MEMS devices for Apple's next iPhone. Similarly, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments are reportedly stockpiling inventory of analog integrated circuits to meet Apple's demand.

In March it was said that Apple was in the process of reviewing potential components for the company's next-generation LTE 4G iPhone. Among the parts Apple was expected to utilize by Barclays was Qualcomm's "MDM9615" LTE chip, which supports both voice and data connections on high-speed 4G networks.

Analysts at Barclays also said at the end of May that Apple had "locked down" suppliers of important radio chips for the sixth-generation iPhone. Companies said to have been selected by Apple included Skyworks, Avago Technologies, and TriQuint.

💬 18 Comments

melgross

said about 10 years ago

Let's stop calling this the 6th generation phone, shall we? At All Things D, Tim Cook was asked about that. He indicated quite strongly that the 3G series was the same generation, as are the 4 series. This is the 6th phone, but perhaps only the 3rd or 4th generation.

solipsismx

said about 10 years ago

I hope this isn't a radically new Qualcomm chip that requires many months of new drivers before it's working properly across the majority of devices. The reason I returned my 4S was specifically because of the Qualcomm baseband processor issues. [quote name="melgross" url="/t/150724/qualcomm-gearing-up-to-produce-4g-lte-chips-for-apples-next-iphone#post_2128317"]Let's stop calling this the 6th generation phone, shall we? At All Things D, Tim Cook was asked about that. He indicated quite strongly that the 3G series was the same generation, as are the 4 series. This is the 6th phone, but perhaps only the 3rd or 4th generation.[/quote] It's the 6th generation by all realistic accounts. You can't look at some of the HW and say it's not the 6th generation device simply because not all of the HW radically changes YoY. By that logic we could be calling the iPhone 3G to the 4S the 3rd gen. because it has 3G cellular tech. The non-Retina MBPs are the next generation of non-Retina MBPs because they have the new Intel chipset and USB 3.0. It's quick simple. [INDENT]generation |???n??re???n| noun • a single stage in the development of a type of product: [/INDENT]

thataveragejoe

said about 10 years ago

First off, while this 'rumor' is probably obvious, enough with the DIGITIMES!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by SolipsismX

It's the 6th generation by all realistic accounts. You can't look at some of the HW and say it's not the 6th generation device simply because not all of the HW radically changes YoY. By that logic we could be calling the iPhone 3G to the 4S the 3rd gen. because it has 3G cellular tech. The non-Retina MBPs are the next generation of non-Retina MBPs because they have the new Intel chipset and USB 3.0. It's quick simple.

generation |???n??re???n|
noun
• a single stage in the development of a type of product:

Agreed. It's the 6th phone. However I doubt any of it matters as it will probably follow the iPad convention and just be the new iPhone or less likely iPhone LTE, with no number attached at all.