Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has supposedly reached a deal with Apple, that will make the Asian company a supplier of chipsets for future generations of iOS devices. Include here are the Apple A8, A9 and A9X processors and more details are available below.
This marks Apple’s move even further from Samsung, as they’re getting screen panels for their tablets from other companies aside from Sammy and now they’re replacing them as CPU makers. Ever since 2010, when the first iPad came out with an Apple A4 CPU, Samsung has been producing the A series chipsets, but that’s over now. TSMC has been working on the partnership for quite some time now, getting up to speed with the yield requirements that Apple needs.
They have to service a huge number of units, so TSMC needs to work fast and efficiently to replace Samsung. They are supposed to start off with a batch of Apple A8 chips in July 2013, ramping up the 20 nm production after December and then reaching into 16 nm and 10 nm territory. Mass production of the Apple A9 and A9x processor will start in Q3 2013, said the same rumors.
