The Taiwanese site Technews reports that Apple’s A8 SoC will be manufactured entirely by TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), as Samsung is facing 20 nm provisioning delays and won’t be able to meet Apple’s demands (via G4Games).
As Digitimes‘ sources pointed out in mid-2013, Apple’s custom A8 SoC will be manufactured using the 20 nm process, and TSMC will be the iPhone maker’s partner in this one. The Taiwanese semiconductor company is said to have completed installing a batch of new 20 nm fab equipment by last December, with a production capability of processing 50,000 wafers during Q1 of 2014.
Since Samsung is facing low yield production issues, Apple is said to have awarded TSMC the full order. But this doesn’t mean Samsung is out of the game completely: the South Korean manufacturer will reportedly get its role back with the A9 chip which will be manufactured using 14 nm and 16 nm processes, sources familiar with the matter said to Digitimes last December.
