Apple to become TSMC's Largest Client with A-Processor Orders
It's being reported today that Apple is expected to become the largest client for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) as the Taiwan-based foundry house has begun to ramp up production of A8 processors and is likely to continue to fabricate the vendor's A9 CPUs in 2015.
Although TSMC appears to have lost Qualcomm's 14nm chip orders to Samsung Electronics, TSMC will win Apple's A9 processor orders with its 16nm process, explained the sources.
It was first reported on in March that the 16nm FinFET+ process was expected to enter volume production in early 2015 and may help TSMC win A9 processor orders from Apple. Today it's being reported that "TSMC's 16nm FinFET and 16nm FinFET Plus processes are expected to enter volume production in the second half of 2015.
The 16nm processes combined with the 20nm process will serve as TSMC's growth drivers over the next three years, TSMC has said.
The latest report flies in the face of a report that surfaced just a week ago. According to CNET's report, "Samsung will challenge Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest contract chip manufacturer, as a supplier of processors to Apple next year.
TSMC will be supplanted by Samsung for the production of next-generation 14-nanometer processors for both Apple and Qualcomm, starting sometime in the second half of 2015, Reuters reports, citing comments from KGI Securities analyst Michael Liu."
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