TSMC ships first batch of chips to Apple, signifying Apples move away from Samsung

[Victorious Secret]

 

We all know that Apple and Samsung like to sue each other into the ground (or at least try to on occasion) and this obviously makes things pretty awkward when Apple is buying chips from Samsung while also suing their mobile division, so in a bid to diversify their supplier portfolio and move away from the reliance on Samsung, Apple went to TSMC and now they are getting their chips (at least, starting to get their chips) from the Taiwanese manufacturer. 

 

 

This also begs the question when (if) Apple will enter the foundry game on their own. They certainly have the knowledge and they can certainly buy more expertise, and they definitely have enough money in the bank to start up their own venture but for now it seems like the Cupertino company is happy to shop around for their chips and this move to TSMC allows them to play a little hardball and get cheaper units. 

 

 

Citing people familiar with the matter, TSMC has supplanted Samsung Electronics as Apple’s chief chipmaker for iPhones and iPads. Apple will continue to rely on the Korean electronics giant for its microprocessors, but as the rivalry between Apple and Samsung heats up in the mobile and soon wearable arenas, the deal with TSMC allows Apple to be less reliant on Samsung and therefore have more leverage with respect to price negotiations for future chips.

Prior to the TSMC deal, which was struck last year, Samsung was the exclusive supplier of Apple’s microprocessors since the very first iPhone launched in 2007. And while a deal over being an exclusive supplier of chips may not seem like a big deal at first, it is.

 

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-deals-samsung-another-blow-as-tsmc-ships-its-first-batch-of-iphone-and-ipad-chips-2014-7

[mooseducks86]

We all know that Apple and Samsung like to sue each other into the ground (or at least try to on occasion) and this obviously makes things pretty awkward when Apple is buying chips from Samsung while also suing their mobile division, so in a bid to diversify their supplier portfolio and move away from the reliance on Samsung, Apple went to TSMC and now they are getting their chips (at least, starting to get their chips) from the Taiwanese manufacturer. 

 

 

This also begs the question when (if) Apple will enter the foundry game on their own. They certainly have the knowledge and they can certainly buy more expertise, and they definitely have enough money in the bank to start up their own venture but for now it seems like the Cupertino company is happy to shop around for their chips and this move to TSMC allows them to play a little hardball and get cheaper units. 

 

 

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-deals-samsung-another-blow-as-tsmc-ships-its-first-batch-of-iphone-and-ipad-chips-2014-7

Isn't samsung the only ones with the tech capable of making their retina displays though? I ve never seen why apple doesn't create their own manufacturing facilities... they have the money, maybe the mac pro assembly plant in the US is the beginning of self reliancy?

 

The next line is a joke... sort of... don't freak out on me people!

I think samsung and apple just sue eachother for tax purposes and publicity, it's a symbiotic relationship that helps them avoid paying taxes all over the world. When their lawyers leave the courtroom, you see their hands in eachothers back pockets.

[ShadowCaptain]

Isn't samsung the only ones with the tech capable of making their retina displays though? I ve never seen why apple doesn't create their own manufacturing facilities... they have the money, maybe the mac pro assembly plant in the US is the beginning of self reliancy?

 

The next line is a joke... sort of... don't freak out on me people!

I think samsung and apple just sue eachother for tax purposes and publicity, it's a symbiotic relationship that helps them avoid paying taxes all over the world. When their lawyers leave the courtroom, you see their hands in eachothers back pockets.

 

I think they are finally starting to do this, they seem big into manufacturing lately so I hope they continue this trend, especially if they make jobs in the US too.

 

Yeah Apple and Samsung are really best friends and the mutually benefit each other, however this must be a bit of a sting to samsung. They are already losing market share in the phone market, and are making something like 25% less profit than last year (I cant remember the figure) this is just even less money to Samsung

 

Good on Apple though, stop them being tied down to another competing brand and maybe than will have more flexibility 

[Victorious Secret]

Isn't samsung the only ones with the tech capable of making their retina displays though? I ve never seen why apple doesn't create their own manufacturing facilities... they have the money, maybe the mac pro assembly plant in the US is the beginning of self reliancy?

 

Apple actually contracts out to multiple vendors (Samsung and LG) and it won't be long before they cut that out too and go elsewhere, most likely to LG or even on their own. 

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Isn't samsung the only ones with the tech capable of making their retina displays though? I ve never seen why apple doesn't create their own manufacturing facilities... they have the money, maybe the mac pro assembly plant in the US is the beginning of self reliancy?

 

The next line is a joke... sort of... don't freak out on me people!

I think samsung and apple just sue eachother for tax purposes and publicity, it's a symbiotic relationship that helps them avoid paying taxes all over the world. When their lawyers leave the courtroom, you see their hands in eachothers back pockets.

 

Joke or not that sounds more likely than any other reasoning I've heard.

[solosdk]

A8 is focusing on power-efficiency I heard, not raw power like the A7 was but still it will be a step in the right direction (better battery life)

[flibberdipper]

Good for Apple. It's about time they stepped away from Samsung so that they can sue them even more.

[steffen_anywhere]

A8 is focusing on power-efficiency I heard, not raw power like the A7 was but still it will be a step in the right direction (better battery life)

 

The raw power of 1.4GHz...dual core....LMAO

 

But seriously though, this doesn't sound at all impressive, yet the A7 SoC about kills everything else performance wise, except maybe the Snapdragon 800 (801) and Samsungs weird 8-core Exynos (but not sure about that one performance wise).

[martinrox1568]

Isn't samsung the only ones with the tech capable of making their retina displays though? I ve never seen why apple doesn't create their own manufacturing facilities... they have the money, maybe the mac pro assembly plant in the US is the beginning of self reliancy?

 

The next line is a joke... sort of... don't freak out on me people!

I think samsung and apple just sue eachother for tax purposes and publicity, it's a symbiotic relationship that helps them avoid paying taxes all over the world. When their lawyers leave the courtroom, you see their hands in eachothers back pockets.

wait, wat????? What do you think is so advanced about the retina display. Every other manufacturer out there has the ability to make higher density displays

[mooseducks86]

wait, wat????? What do you think is so advanced about the retina display. Every other manufacturer out there has the ability to make higher density displays

I thought one of their retina displays had layered R, G, and B leds that only samsung could manufacture? Or am I thinking of someone else?

 

edit: i might be thinking of in-cell displays, which LG manufactures for Apple. I'm not sure if Samsung does too. I have a weird memory, and I remember watching a youtube video over a year ago (apparently in 2009) about a topic that involved apple, a new display, and only one company that had the technology to be able to make it. So, it's probably the in-cell. Ill keep looking

 

edit 2: LG no longer makes them, guess they pissed off apple! lol http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2014/06/lg-loses-exclusive-supplier-contract-for-apples-in-cell-displays.html

edit 3: I can't find this article anywhere else and I've never heard of that site, so... Can't take it to heart!

June 3 2014

Apple's exclusive deal with LG Display for in-cell displays has now expired and Apple hasn't renewed their contract with LG. While no official reason was given for Apple letting the contract expire without renewal, we reported back in December 2012 that Apple's new In-Cell Displays may be Root of Production Problems of the iPhone 5. Apple may have lost confidence in LG due to the delays to the iPhone 5 or Apple may have simply decided to use a different technology. For now, LG is making it clear that it will pursue the In-Cell market independently with its own technology.

 

[martinrox1568]

The raw power of 1.4GHz...dual core....LMAO

 

But seriously though, this doesn't sound at all impressive, yet the A7 SoC about kills everything else performance wise, except maybe the Snapdragon 800 (801) and Samsungs weird 8-core Exynos (but not sure about that one performance wise).

No it even kills the 801 and 8 cores from samsung. Maybe it doesn't 'kill' them but consistently beats it in almost everything. I have to wonder if it because of Apple's amazing hardware design or maybe if Apple is simply better at optimizing just because they only have 6 phones and a couple tablets

[martinrox1568]

I thought one of their retina displays had layered R, G, and B leds that only samsung could manufacture? Or am I thinking of someone else?

 

edit: i might be thinking of in-cell displays, which LG manufactures for Apple. I'm not sure if Samsung does too. I have a weird memory, and I remember watching a youtube video over a year ago (apparently in 2009) about a topic that involved apple, a new display, and only one company that had the technology to be able to make it. So, it's probably the in-cell. Ill keep looking

 

edit 2: LG no longer makes them, guess they pissed off apple! lol http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2014/06/lg-loses-exclusive-supplier-contract-for-apples-in-cell-displays.html

edit 3: I can't find this article anywhere else and I've never heard of that site, so... Can't take it to heart!

hmm interesting.  I would've thought that Apple would've cancelled their contract with Samsuing years before they cancel it with LG. However, that youtube video you were watching was from 2009, when the Iphone 3gs was made with a 320x480 display, and no one else had any expertise in small, high density displays and I'm sure by now, Also, I've never heard about the layered RGB leds

[mooseducks86]

hmm interesting.  I would've thought that Apple would've cancelled their contract with Samsuing years before they cancel it with LG. However, that youtube video you were watching was from 2009, when the Iphone 3gs was made with a 320x480 display, and no one else had any expertise in small, high density displays and I'm sure by now, Also, I've never heard about the layered RGB leds

I confirmed it was the in-cell display I was thinking of....

 

And here's one of the videos I was thinking of. but it's not the longer one I was looking for.

 

[LAwLz]

No it even kills the 801 and 8 cores from samsung. Maybe it doesn't 'kill' them but consistently beats it in almost everything. I have to wonder if it because of Apple's amazing hardware design or maybe if Apple is simply better at optimizing just because they only have 6 phones and a couple tablets

No it doesn't.

Clock for clock it's really really good, but it's still not even close to being as fast as for example the Exynos Octa in terms of raw performance (on the CPU side).

That's the problem with Apple's SoC if you ask me. It's fantastic clock for clock and core for core, but it runs at a really low frequency and only has 2 cores. The reason why it wins in benchmarks has more to do with the software used (usually God awful browser based benchmarks) and not so much the actual hardware.

The GPU is great though.

 

 

I thought one of their retina displays had layered R, G, and B leds that only samsung could manufacture? Or am I thinking of someone else?

 

edit: i might be thinking of in-cell displays, which LG manufactures for Apple. I'm not sure if Samsung does too. I have a weird memory, and I remember watching a youtube video over a year ago (apparently in 2009) about a topic that involved apple, a new display, and only one company that had the technology to be able to make it. So, it's probably the in-cell. Ill keep looking

 

edit 2: LG no longer makes them, guess they pissed off apple! lol http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2014/06/lg-loses-exclusive-supplier-contract-for-apples-in-cell-displays.html

edit 3: I can't find this article anywhere else and I've never heard of that site, so... Can't take it to heart!

No pretty much everyone can make in-cell touch panels. I know LG and JDI can do it.

[martinrox1568]

I confirmed it was the in-cell display I was thinking of....

 

And here's one of the videos I was thinking of. but it's not the longer one I was looking for.

 

ooohhhh that s what you were talking about. Yea, pretty much everyone can make those i think

[mooseducks86]

ooohhhh that s what you were talking about. Yea, pretty much everyone can make those i think

My memory isn't what it used to be, but I think it's mostly because I can never find what I wnt on google anymore. Google used to understand how my mind worked, I can remember exact sentences or keywords that were used in a page I saw years before. Now it just brings up whatever makes them more ad revenue! lol.

 

By the way, can you do me a favor? Try searching for a video in google, and then use search tools to sort videos as a custom time range? This is driving me batty, No matter what date range I select with their calendar (I tried with that for 2011-2012) but now I'm looking for a samsung series 9 review, even if I put may 1 2014-july 10 2014, it sets the date ranges as like year 10 AD. I'm seriously hating google right now.

 

[martinrox1568]

My memory isn't what it used to be, but I think it's mostly because I can never find what I wnt on google anymore. Google used to understand how my mind worked, I can remember exact sentences or keywords that were used in a page I saw years before. Now it just brings up whatever makes them more ad revenue! lol.

 

By the way, can you do me a favor? Try searching for a video in google, and then use search tools to sort videos as a custom time range? This is driving me batty, No matter what date range I select with their calendar (I tried with that for 2011-2012) but now I'm looking for a samsung series 9 review, even if I put may 1 2014-july 10 2014, it sets the date ranges as like year 10 AD. I'm seriously hating google right now.

 

lol it works for me. Here, see if you can find it with this link 

https://www.google.com/search?q=s27b970d&safe=off&biw=2560&bih=1339&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A5%2F1%2F2014%2Ccd_max%3A7%2F10%2F2014&tbm=

[mooseducks86]

lol it works for me. Here, see if you can find it with this link 

https://www.google.com/search?q=s27b970d&safe=off&biw=2560&bih=1339&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A5%2F1%2F2014%2Ccd_max%3A7%2F10%2F2014&tbm=

 

canada (google.ca)

https://www.google.ca/search?q=S27B970D&num=50&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A5%2F1%2F2014%2Ccd_max%3A7%2F10%2F2014&tbm=

 

your link (google.com)

https://www.google.com/search?q=s27b970d&safe=off&biw=2560&bih=1339&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A5%2F1%2F2014%2Ccd_max%3A7%2F10%2F2014&tbm=

 

Other than country code, and you have safesearch off, what is the difference? The date codes look exactly the same to me. Does my google.ca link get the right results for you?

[martinrox1568]

canada (google.ca)

https://www.google.ca/search?q=S27B970D&num=50&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A5%2F1%2F2014%2Ccd_max%3A7%2F10%2F2014&tbm=

 

your link (google.com)

https://www.google.com/search?q=s27b970d&safe=off&biw=2560&bih=1339&source=lnt&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A5%2F1%2F2014%2Ccd_max%3A7%2F10%2F2014&tbm=

 

Other than country code, and you have safesearch off, what is the difference? The date codes look exactly the same to me. Does my google.ca link get the right results for you?

lmao that gave me a good chuckle. I guess use Google.com. I feel like we derailed this topic a bit tho

[TAK]

.

[solosdk]

The raw power of 1.4GHz...dual core....LMAO

 

But seriously though, this doesn't sound at all impressive, yet the A7 SoC about kills everything else performance wise, except maybe the Snapdragon 800 (801) and Samsungs weird 8-core Exynos (but not sure about that one performance wise).

 

 

Are you dumb or something?

 

The A7 chip is a powerhouse and competes with a quad-core Snapdragon 800/801. Yes a 1.4Ghz dual-core is able to keep up with 2Ghz+ quad-core chip. Get your facts right before commenting. Anandtech did a great review of the A7 chip and I highly suggest you read it.

[LAwLz]

Are you dumb or something?

 

The A7 chip is a powerhouse and competes with a quad-core Snapdragon 800/801. Yes a 1.4Ghz dual-core is able to keep up with 2Ghz+ quad-core chip. Get your facts right before commenting. Anandtech did a great review of the A7 chip and I highly suggest you read it.

No it doesn't...

Like I said before the testing methodology is extremely flawed. In terms of raw performance it's a great dual core chip, but it's not as good as a quad core Krait 400 at 2Ghz+. It's simply not.

If you fully load all cores then the A7 won't be anywhere near as fast (except for a few things like RSA and AES where it will perform far better).

 

If you're just looking at pure, raw, push the chip to the limit performance, then Snapdragon is much faster CPU wise. The A7 has a better GPU though.

[Puppet]

This is the whole reason Apple is patent crazy, they want to be Samsung or LG etc and become manufacturers not producers.

 

If Apple can get into manufacturing their own components prices will seriously come down and we know their design is good.

 

This seems to be a step towards that.

[Victorious Secret]

This is the whole reason Apple is patent crazy, they want to be Samsung or LG etc and become manufacturers not producers.

 

If Apple can get into manufacturing their own components prices will seriously come down and we know their design is good.

 

This seems to be a step towards that.

 

Component prices might drop, but I don't think Apple is ready to give up that premium label just yet and offer us cheaper products. 

 

Maybe, but I won't hold my breath.