It's been rumoured for some time that Apple is going to switch the production of its ARM based chips away from Samsung. Not because there's anything wrong with Samsung's chips, rather just part and parcel of the ongoing fight between the two companies. These are the chips that power all of Apple's mobile devices: the iPads and iPhones, but not the Macs.
There's a story coming out of Taiwan that Apple has already started to make the switch, commissioning TSMC to make the next round of the A6 chip and then on into production of the A7.
Apple has already requested Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to produce its next-generation A6X processors, reports the Taiwanese financial newspaper Commercial Times.
There has been widespread speculation that TSMC is set to take over production of Apple’s iDevice processors from Samsung. Samsung is the supplier of the current A6 and A6X processors found in the iPhone 5 and the fourth-generation iPad, respectively. But Samsung is also, by all appearances, Apple’s foremost competitor and litigator.
There is indeed a certain logic to this. Apple has been taking more of the design of the chips inhouse over recent generations of them, leaving Samsung just as a fab rather than designer. And then there's that ongoing spat between the two companies to consider as well.
There's really just one more thing to consider. Samsung has just announced, only a couple of weeks back, that it has approval to boost the Austin TX plant that makes those chips for Apple with a $4 billion investment. If the plant's not going to be making for Apple much longer then will that investment go ahead? And if it does, what will it make?
Perhaps Samsung's own consumption of these chips will be large enough to make the expansion worthwhile anyway?
