Apple chip supplier TSMC doubling 16nm chip production, hinting at 'iPhone 7' prep

Key Apple processor supplier TSMC plans to double its production capacity for 16-nanometer chips in March, reports said on Wednesday, hinting at preparation for future Apple devices.

Capacity will leap ahead from 40,000 12-inch wafers in February to 80,000 by the end of the month, according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News, quoted by DigiTimes. Neither publication indicated why the company is scaling up so rapidly.

Apple, however, is the biggest among several companies said to be major 16-nanometer clients for TSMC. Others include Xilinx, MediaTek, HiSilicon, Spreadtrum, and Nvidia.

TSMC is moreover rumored to be the primary or sole manufacturer of "A10" processors for next-generation iPhones, which could be churned out using the firm's 16-nanometer FinFET process. Mass production with the process — for all clients — is expected to start in the second quarter.

If Apple intends to ship new flagship iPhones in September as usual, the company will need processor supply to ramp up months beforehand so enough phones can be manufactured for launch. That may be a particular challenge if chip manufacturing duties are no longer being split with Samsung, as they are for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus.

12 Comments

thewhitefalcon 4444 comments · 10 Years

About 8 years ago

nVidia is the likely client right now, with the upcoming launch of Pascal based GPU's.

tmay 6455 comments · 11 Years

Whatever happened to Global Foundries?

Are they at 16 nm?

wizard69 13358 comments · 21 Years

tmay said:

Whatever happened to Global Foundries?

Are they at 16 nm?

Good question. In this case I think Apple interest in TSMC has little to do with 16nm but rather the stacked die technology that should debut this year. I'm not convinced that Global has its act together, it will be interesting to see if they actually make any of AMDs new GPUs. The constant delays with AMDs next generation processor chips doesn't leave one with a warm fuzzy feeling either.

wizard69 said:

tmay said:

Whatever happened to Global Foundries?

Are they at 16 nm?

Good question. In this case I think Apple interest in TSMC has little to do with 16nm but rather the stacked die technology that should debut this year. I'm not convinced that Global has its act together, it will be interesting to see if they actually make any of AMDs new GPUs. The constant delays with AMDs next generation processor chips doesn't leave one with a warm fuzzy feeling either.

GF has completed the takeover of all of the assets, IP and engineers from IBM's chipmaking operation, and they are at the same 14nm process that Samsung is at (by agreement). I think you are correct that Apple went with TMSC for the stacked technology.

Maybe this will bring some stability to AMD's production. At any rate, TMSC looks to be solid for the A10 for this year.