AppleInsider Staff
According to a report on Friday, Apple's latest 64-bit A8 system-on-a-chip, currently powering the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, is built by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., not longtime partner Samsung.
Less than a day after Apple's latest iPhones made their worldwide debut, the team at Chipworks on Friday disassembled both models to take a closer look at the components inside, revealing an A8 processor fabricated by TSMC.
The finding confirms rumors from last year claiming Apple would switched away from Samsung foundries to TSMC, which employs a 20-nanometer CMOS process for the latest-generation A-series SoC. According to Chipworks, the A8's contacted gate pitch of around 90nm is consistent with Qualcomm's MDM9235, a chip known to be fabricated by TSMC.
Other substantial finds include previously unannounced NFC controller made by NXP that dates back to 2012. Chipworks cites insiders as saying the design was made exclusively for Apple, meaning the Cupertino company has had access to the silicon for at least 18 months.
In addition, Apple tapped InvenSense for the new iPhones' six-axis accelerometer and gyroscope, unseating previous supplier STMicroelectronics. Texas Instruments also makes an appearance with a haptics driver used to control the vibrator unit.
Sony is once again supplying the iSight chip, which in the case of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is the company's Exmor RS back-illuminated CMOS image sensor (CIS). As previously announced, the chip features 1.5-micron pixels on a die size of 4.8 mm-by-6.1 mm. Further, Chipworks discovered Apple's "Focus Pixels," or phase detection system, are implemented in the green channel.
The public got its first look at the components used to build the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in a pair of teardowns late Thursday night.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
112 Comments
See what happens, Samsung, when you bite the hand that feeds you?
Wow. Nothing like losing a few billion dollars in revenue and having them go straight into the pockets of a major competitor. So not only will Samsung revenues go down due to iPhone 6/6+ stealing sales from the Note 4/Galaxy S5, but they're going to decrease over the A8 processor. I predict the next two earnings calls are going to look pretty bad for Samsung.
It has other run on effects as well. It's a significant competitive blow to no longer have access to their primary competitor's detailed chip schematics. Effectively putting them in the dark about which direction their competitor will be moving in, as well as not having access to the wealth of intellectual property that comes with an ever-advancing chip design. That's before considering the loss of income and investment scale that comes from producing such a high volume of the 'latest and greatest' mobile chip design.
Oh no! How will Samsung make good smart device products now? Guess they'll have to churn out more Gear and Edge "innovations" lol Can you say downhill in a hurry." They make great tvs. And their washer/dryer units are ok. But when they don't blatantly copy Apple in the smart device realm, they just plain suck.
Good thing the S5 is waterproof. Many tears shed in Gangnam Town.